Committee to Protect Journalists - Argentina

CPJ seeks comprehensive inquiry in Clarín tax raid

2009-09-11T19:08:11Z

New York, September 11, 2009—Two hundred tax agents raided the offices of Argentina’s largest daily, Clarín, on Wednesday after the paper ran a cover story alleging that a government agency improperly granted a farm subsidy, the local press said. The action, which Clarín decried as government intimidation, has intensified a fierce debate between President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration and Argentina’s largest media conglomerate over a proposed overhaul of broadcasting laws.

Argentine court orders official ads into critical publications

2009-02-19T18:44:09Z

New York, February 19, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes a recent Argentine court ruling that orders the government to place state advertisements in critical publications.

Attacks on the Press in 2008: Argentina

2009-02-10T05:51:00Z

Adding to a mounting body of international legal opinion, two landmark rulings held that public officials may not be shielded from public scrutiny. In May, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights voided a criminal defamation sentence against a local journalist and urged Argentina to reform its defamation laws in line with regional standards. Two months later, the country’s Supreme Court of Justice affirmed the “actual malice” standard in determining liability in defamation cases involving public officials.

Ruling on FM broadcasts draws concern in Argentina

2008-08-29T00:33:14Z

August 28, 2008

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Republic of Argentina
Casa Rosada
Balcarce 24
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Via facsímile: 54-11-4344-3700

Dear President Fernández de Kirchner:

We are concerned that the Federal Broadcasting Committee may have been motivated by editorial issues in ordering the Buenos Aires-basedRadio Continental to stop broadcasting on its FM frequency.

Court asserts right to criticize public officials

2008-07-01T16:00:00Z

New York, July 1, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists applauds the Argentine Supreme Court's unanimous decision asserting that public officials should be held to a high level of scrutiny and overturning a civil judgment against a national daily that criticized a government agency. In a ruling that sets some of the clearest and broadest press protections in Argentine history, the court affirmed the "actual malice" standard in determining liability in defamation cases involving public officials.

Inter-American court urges Argentina to reform defamation laws

2008-05-22T16:00:00Z

New York, May 22, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists hails a new ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that urges Argentina to void a criminal defamation sentence against a local journalist and reform its defamations laws.

The decision by the international court, based in San José, Costa Rica’s capital, was made public on Tuesday by the Argentine human rights organization Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), which represented the reporter before the court. The ruling was dated May 2. The court is an arm of the Organization of American States (OAS) and its decisions are binding on member states.

Television journalist shot to death in northern Jujuy province

2008-03-19T16:00:00Z

ARGENTINA:

New York, March 19, 2008—Argentine television journalist Juan Carlos Zambrano was shot to death this morning in the northern province of Jujuy. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating possible links between Zambrano’s death and his work.

Two unidentified men approached Zambrano, host of the daily news and the weekly opinion program “Con la Gente” (With the People) on local television station Canal 7, outside his home in the provincial capital of San Salvador de Jujuy around 2:30 a.m. today, according to reports in the Argentine press and CPJ interviews. The assailants shot him at close range on the chest at least once, his colleague Javier Angel Díaz told CPJ. The journalist was pronounced dead at the scene, local press reports said.

Radio reporter wounded while covering social protest

2007-09-13T16:00:00Z

New York, September 13, 2007—Argentine radio reporter Adela Gómez was injured Wednesday after national border guards fired rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters blocking a road in the southern province of Santa Cruz.

Gómez, a reporter with radio station FM XXI in the city of Caleta Olivia, about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires, was covering a union protest by workers of Empasa, an oil services company, the local press reported. A group of employees were blocking a road when members of the national border police decided to clear it to allow hundreds of government supporters to make their way to a presidential campaign address in Río Gallegos, the provincial capital, said the daily Clarín.

Supreme Court ruling limits manipulation of state ads

2007-09-07T16:00:00Z

New York, September 7, 2007—An Argentine Supreme Court ruling condemning the province of Neuquén for the withdrawal of state advertising from a critical daily will help protect the media from government manipulation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On Wednesday, Argentina’s highest tribunal ruled the government cannot suppress or substantially reduce official advertising to the media arbitrarily, the local press reported. The court’s decision concluded it is illegal to deprive a critical publication of state ads.

Argentine radio journalist convicted on criminal slander charge

2007-09-04T16:00:00Z

New York, September 4, 2007—The criminal slander conviction of an Argentine radio journalist is alarming and should be overturned on appeal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Monday’s ruling, by a judge in northwestern Salta province, also bars commentator Sergio Poma from working for one year.

Judge Héctor Martínez handed Poma, owner of local radio station FM Noticias and host of the news program “Código de Investigación,” a one-year suspended prison sentence on a criminal slander complaint brought by the local governor, Juan Carlos Romero, according to local news reports and CPJ interviews. The judge also ordered that the sentence be published in all local media outlets, the journalist told CPJ. Poma said his lawyers have appealed the conviction.

CPJ urges Argentine municipal government to reopen newspaper plant

2007-08-07T16:00:00Z

New York, August 7, 2007

Mayor Mónica De La Quintana
Bv. Urquiza 517
San Lorenzo, Santa Fe
Argentina

Via facsimile: 54-3476-422650

Dear Mayor De la Quintana,

The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to express deep concern about the closure of the San Lorenzo-based daily El Observador's printing plant ordered by your government in late July, which prompted the paper to stop publishing. CPJ believes the decision violates freedom of expression as enshrined in the Argentine constitution and in the provincial constitution of Santa Fe.

CPJ Update

2007-08-01T04:00:00Z

CPJ Update
August 2007
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Attacks on the Press in 2006: Introduction

2007-02-05T17:00:00Z

By Joel Simon

As Venezuelan elections approached in November, President Hugo Chávez accused news broadcasters of engaging in a "psychological war to divide, weaken, and destroy the nation." Their broadcast licenses, he said, could be pulled--no idle threat in a country where a vague 2004 media law allows the government to shut down stations for work deemed "contrary to the security of the nation."

Attacks on the Press 2006: Argentina

2007-02-05T16:46:00Z

ARGENTINA

President Néstor Kirchner’s administration continued its practice of funneling government advertising to friendly news outlets and withholding it from critical media. Amid increased tension between Kirchner and the press, authorities were also accused of editorial interference in the abrupt cancellation of two independent shows on state-owned broadcast networks.

CPJ Update

2007-01-10T15:17:05Z

CPJ Update
November 2007
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

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