Argentina
Harassment of journalists increasingPosted Apr 15 2009
While free speech is protected under the law in Argentina, journalists routinely face threats and harassment when reporting on government corruption, the Talking Points Memo blog reports after the Global Integrity Report released its latest rating of the country.
Media organizations in Argentina have reported they are under tremendous financial pressure to not publicize anything that could put the government in a bad light, the report said.
“There are some informal restrictions posed by the government, such as phone calls to media company members, in order to ‘stop’ the publication of some information that may affect the government’s image,” the report revealed. “In other cases, the government pressures media companies through discretional distribution of official advertising, which often represents an important financing source for many media companies.
“Self-censorship exists as well, when media companies do not publish information that may affect their economic interests or relations with certain companies.”
The Global Integrity Report commented in January on the “soft censorship” present in Argentina – how government advertising was only placed in papers that stated their support for Christina Kirchner as her husband’s successor to the presidency.
In the past few months, reports of death threats and violence against journalists have appeared to increase as well. In January, a small independent radio station’s antenna was cut, and the station is broadcasting from another location that reaches a much smaller audience until they can afford to replace the structure. Journalists reporting on the relationship between politicians and drug traffickers have been physically harmed.
More information
- Talking Points Memo
- Global Integrity Report