Argentina

The Supreme Court called a hearing in which representatives of the government and of Grupo Clarín will present their arguments concerning the Audiovisual Services Law, which would require the media outlet to rid itself of some of its licenses, within a period of one year.

The Inter American Press Association regrets the Argentinian government’s labeling of journalist Jorge Lanata as “assassin” and “media murderer.” In an official release the Office of the Presidency of the Nation denied the legitimacy of information he reported regarding President Kirchner’s stopover in the Seychelles Islands.

FOPEA condemns the fact that journalist Maximiliano Pascual’s car was intentionally set on fire. Pascual is the co-owner and editor of the weekly La Posta Hoy, an Argentinian paper that often takes a critical editorial line.

The owner of Radio Génesis in Formosa province, Argentina, suspects that individuals linked to the local and provincial authorities may be behind a fire deliberately set at the station.

The owner of Radio Génesis in Formosa province, Argentina, suspects that individuals linked to the local and provincial authorities may be behind a fire deliberately set at the station.

FOPEA is concerned about a fire set in a car belonging to Raúl and Víctor Cortez, journalists for the VideoTar TV station in Tartagal, Salta on Monday 18 March 2013.

FOPEA is concerned by two incidents that took place on 20 December involving attacks on media vehicles in Rosario and San Carlos de Bariloche.

RSF supports Argentina’s new law on Audiovisual Communication Services (SCA), but regrets that it has created a climate that is detrimental to journalists both on the government side and among media groups that are hostile to the law. The SCA should not have become a hostage to the current polarization in the country.

The largest Argentinean media conglomerate, Clarín Group, has filed a criminal lawsuit alleging “incitement to violence and aggravated coercion” by members of the government. Clarín and the government have been involved in a three-year legal battle over a law that will see the media group forced to divest itself of significant holdings.

FOPEA stands with Argentinian radio journalist Daniel Polaczinski, who has been receiving threats, some of which may have come from a local councillor. Many of the threats are anonymous, but one of the numbers that threats have been sent from belongs to the head of the local municipal council.

In the early morning of 8 November 2012, several copies of the newspaper Hoy, based in La Plata, were burned. A kiosk that sells the paper in Buenos Aires was completely destroyed by a fire after vendors working for the paper’s distribution company received threats.

A photojournalist was covering the arrival of some robbers at an Argentinian police station when he was recognised by the police, beaten and threatened.

Reporters Without Borders expresses its deep concern about Néstor Omar Pasquini, the owner and manager of Radio FM Show, a local radio station in the province of Córdoba. The all-out judicial persecution to which this man has been subjected for nearly six years demands a response.

The bitter confrontation between Argentina’s government and its critical press has resulted in a climate of polarization that is depriving citizens of objective information on vital issues of public interest, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in a special report.

An official announcement warned that if before December 7 Clarín Group does not reduce the number of media it owns “the Argentine government will be obliged to call a public bidding to award those licenses that exceed the maximum authorized under the law to new bearers”.

According to the police report, Argentinian journalist Aníbal Palma was assaulted and threatened with death by local media businessman Gregorio Monzón and two of his employees.