MIAMI,
Florida (Nov. 23)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) said today
that it will remain "alert and vigilant" to apparent political
and legal persecution of the daily newspaper El Liberal in northern Argentine
province of Santiago del Estero, and at the same time welcomed repeal of
regulations gagging the press there. An IAPA mission to Argentina had found
concern among the local community about certain legal actions that represented
a curtailment of press freedom.
Following a meeting in Buenos Aires with Interior Minister Federico Storani,
IAPA President Danilo Arbilla said he welcomed the ministers promise "to
personally look into" the situation involving the Santiago del Estero
provincial governor, Carlos Juárez, and El Liberal.
The IAPA traveled to Santiago del Estero November 19 to 21 to investigate
complaints of political persecution of El Liberal with the aim of stifle
the more than 100-year-old newspaper. The attacks on El Liberal, in apparent
reprisal for its exposures, have taken the form of discrimination in the
placement of official advertising, assaults on reporters, telephone wiretapping,
it was alleged, and a strange situation in the legal area in which there
have been legal proceedings taken with undue haste and pre-judgment garnishment,
for large sums of money, at the behest of the Womens Branch of the Justicialist
(Peronist) Party, headed by Lieutenant Governor Mercedes Aragonés
de Juárez, who is also the governors wife.
Arbilla said that the "nationalization of the problem" through
the interior ministry and subsequent action on an international level with
such entities as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the World
Press Freedom Committee are "the right steps" to be taken to attempt
to halt the judicial persecution that "is clearly a center of infection
that could give rise to similar cases elsewhere."
"We made our views clear on discrimination in the placement of official
advertising, which in Santiago del Estero the government would use to reward
or punish the media, in detriment to the interests of El Liberal, according
to the majority of the opinions expressed to us, and on the legal proceedings
that we can characterize as rare and contrary to accepted jurisprudence,"
Arbilla said in commenting on the meeting with Interior Minister Storani.
He added that the IAPA was concerned because "there have already been
two pre-judgment garnishments that have harmed the newspaper companys finances"
and because "the defense counsel has told us that 3,600 more lawsuits
would be added to the 400 already filed by the Womens Branch, which clearly
shows we are faced with a corporativist and generic motivated by a political
reprisal."
The IAPA delegation visiting Santiago del Estero was made up of Arbilla,
editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, news weekly Búsqueda; the chairman
of IAPAs Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina,
Ahora, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Committee Regional Vice Chairman
for Argentina Luis Etchevehere, El Diario, Paraná; Bartolomé
Mitre, La Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina, a member of the IAPA Board
of Directors, and Press Freedom Coordinator Ricardo Trotti.
The IAPA said its was pleased to have achieved the repeal or amendment of
a series of regulations that represented serious gags on the press. The
IAPA had taken up complaints of the local journalists union about these
regulations and added them to its own.
In response to a request from the IAPA in a meeting with him, Supreme Court
Chief Justice Ernesto Kozameh promised to study possible repeal of a law
on the books since 1985 which requires judges to obtain authorization from
the Supreme Court to make any statement to the press. The requirement, which
the IAPA saw as restricting access to information, was in fact repealed
on November 21 - one day after the meeting.
"We welcome this action by the judiciary, which will enable journalists
now to do their job better, but especially because it implies recognition
of the publics right to receive information without hindrance," Arbilla
said.
The IAPA president also welcomed the pledge by Gov. Juárez to introduce
a bill to amend the Ombudsman Law, one of whose clauses empowers the ombudsman
to request, inspect and confiscate reporters and news medias notes and
files, which the IAPA regards as amounting to violation of professional
secrecy and the right not to reveal news sources. In its meeting with Gov.
Juárez, the IAPA stated that "advertising should be distributed
in line with technical data concerning the penetration and circulation of
the media and should never be used as a reprisal to punish the media."
Arbilla relayed to Juárez complaints about access to official information
and safeguarding the ability of journalists to do their job. At the same
time, he urged the governor to use his good offices to ensure that in Santiago
del Estero "there is an awareness that the legal uncertainty and apparent
lack of independence of the judiciary do not contribute to democratic co-existence."
The IAPA delegation also met with the mayor of the Santiago del Estero provincial
capital, Juan Carlos Maccarone, Chamber of Deputies Speaker Darío
Moreno, Womens Branch legal counsel Carlos González Avalos, national
and provincial congressmen form the opposition Civic and Social Movement
(MOCISO), and leaders of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Press
Circle.