|
|
Country-by-Country
Reports
|
ARGENTINA
There have been a number of attacks on media organizations
and journalists, reflecting a range of violations of freedom of speech and of
the press.
In a ruling that rightly caused concern, the Supreme Court at the end of September
upheld the conviction of Editorial Perfil S.A., ordering it to pay punitive
damages for allegedly harming former president Carlos Menem by reporting aspects
of his private life.
The court ruled in favor of Menem, saying that some articles published in the
magazine Noticias violated his privacy and damaged his reputation. Editorial
Perfil is required to pay 60,000 pesos.
In two news stories published in 1994 and 1995, the magazine Noticias reported
on a relationship the then president had with Justicialist Party legislator
Marta Meza when Menem was exiled in Formosa province during the military government.
A son reportedly was born to the couple. Menem sued and lost in a lower court.
But in March of 1998, Division H of the Civil Chamber overturned that decision
and ruled against the publishing firm. That decision was upheld later by the
Supreme Court.
It must be noted that the facts published by Noticias were already public and
widely known, and the truth of the report was not in doubt, as the court admitted.
In addition, Menem always kept himself and many aspects of his private life
in the public eye.
The Argentine press warned that, "an official who opens the door to his
private life, should not be annoyed because the media pass the threshold of
his privacy, report accurately to citizens about certain aspects of his personal
ethics which, necessarily, affect his concept of public ethics in exercising
his mandate."
Unfortunately, the newspaper El Liberal's problem with the governor of Santiago
del Estero province, Carlos Juárez, continues.
In June, Abid Hussain, special rapporteur of the U.N. Human Rights Commission,
made an official visit to Argentina to evaluate press freedom. During an interview
in Buenos Aires, a group of publishers told him "no problem worries us
more than that of the newspaper El Liberal." Hussain traveled to Santiago
del Estero to meet with the parties. His report will be presented to the United
Nations in March of 2002.
Among other irregularities in this case, the court in Santiago has not forwarded
the original files requested by the Supreme Court, while most of the cases are
being heard by judges who were challenged by El Liberal's defense team because
they were not independent.
The biggest obstacle the newspaper faces are multiple seizures because of lawsuits,
supposedly initiated by the government. A group of 440 women (of a total 4,000
who also threatened to sue) of the women's branch of the Justicialista Party
in the provincial government sued the newspaper, saying they had been harmed
by the publication of an article that had appeared in the newspaper La Voz del
Interior of Cordoba. The damages demanded could total $19 million.
Before the complaints were filed, the provincial government suspended all advertising
in El Liberal and stopped payment of advertising that had been ordered earlier.
The situation had not changed as of July of this year.
The Federal Radio Broadcasting Committee (COMFER) imposed administrative sanctions
on two stations: Crónica TV for broadcasting an event of the neo-Nazi
party New Triumph, and Canal 7 for comments in the program "Marcapazos"
that, the agency said, had affected the presidential inauguration.
The sanctions are based on Radio Broadcasting Law 22285, still in effect in
Argentina, which regulates the content, goals and character of news broadcast
by radio and television. The law, approved during the most recent military dictatorship,
establishes restrictive and obsolete regulations. It also clearly violates international
treaties incorporated into the National Constitution in 1994.
In the province of Río Negro in Patagonia there have been attacks by
Governor Jorge Sobisch against the daily newspaper Río Negro.
On August 3, Sobisch attacked the newspaper Río Negro in statements to
Radio Departamento Minas of Andacollo, harshly criticizing its news agency Neuquén
and its news director, journalist Héctor Mauriño, for having published
the day before that the government had withdrawn police from a highway bridge
where there was a large protest of picketers, to prevent problems two days before
internal elections of the Popular Movement of Neuquén (MPN).
The governor also mentioned another news story published earlier that reported
an alleged decrease in membership in the MPN, which, paradoxically, he admitted
was true.
In another incident that occurred midway through the year, unknown individuals
broke into the Río Negro's paper storage facility with gasoline cans
in an arson attempt that remains unsolved.
In the early morning of April 13, threats were made against newspaper vendors
to prevent them from opening their newsstands in the northern part of greater
Buenos Aires. The threats had no effect. The newspapers were published as usual
and distributed along their routes at the usual times.
This situation was reported to Interior Minister Ramón Mestre and to
the interior minister of Buenos Aires province, Raúl Othacehe. They were
asked to establish methods to avoid such attacks against free trade and press
freedom.
 questions
or comments? e-mail us
Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association.
All rights reserved.
. |
