(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 28 August 1998, the Argentine Supreme Court granted the right of reply for the third time this year. The Court ordered a publisher to print a letter written by an individual who felt he was maligned by an article which appeared in one of the publisher’s magazines. The case was filed by […]
(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 28 August 1998, the Argentine Supreme Court granted
the right of reply for the third time this year. The Court ordered a
publisher to print a letter written by an individual who felt he was
maligned by an article which appeared in one of the publisher’s magazines.
The case was filed by Horacio Rozemblum, who was mentioned in an article in
the now-defunct “Somos”, a magazine of the publishing house Editorial
Atlántida. The article described Rozemblum as a “lobbyist” and a “key actor
in a fraudulent operation” of a bank, the Banco de Crédito y Comercio
Internacional (BCCI). Rozemblum felt maligned and asked for a correction to
be printed. When the publisher refused, he filed charges.
Even though Argentina does not have right of reply legislation, the courts
can invoke Article 14 of the San José Pact, a regional pact which is
constitutionally applicable in the country. The most important part of the
Supreme Court’s decision is that four of its justices said there was no
need to prove the truth or accuracy of a piece of information in order to
grant the right of reply. According to the daily newspaper “Clarín”, the
justices said that “for the right of reply to be exercised, it is not
necessary to determine whether the information circulated was truly
inaccurate nor does the corresponding person need to provide proof of its
veracity.”
This is the third time this year the Supreme Court has issued a decision
granting the right of reply. The first was an April verdict in which the
daily “Página 12” was ordered to publish a former presidential aide’s
explanation, even though the inaccuracy of the article in question was
never proven during the trial. The second case, a few weeks ago, involved
an individual and the Jujuy province daily “El Pregon”.
