The Pierce Family does not read Argentine newspapers, but even we know that Cristina Kirchner this week dropped a huge political bomb. She has called for the investigation of the country’s only newsprint supplier, which happens to be owned by her political opponents who waste no effort in tearing her down.
The article below tries to explain this twisted mess of a political situation.
As an editorial comment, Robert will say here that although the Argentine and international press conglomerartes, including the Wall Street Journal, as usual, talk of infringement of the freedom of press whenever anyone tries to take their money away, this Argentine political mess is not about a weakening of Argentine free speech or the press generally. Some news groups have made that same point. This is a political feud between two specific factions that control the country’s politics.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575450160952433980.html?mod=googlenews_wsj <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575450160952433980.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>
Argentina Moves to Seize Newsprint Firm
By SHANE ROMIG
BUENOS AIRES—Argentina’s government intensified a campaign to wrest control of the country’s largest newsprint-paper provider on Tuesday, a move top local newspapers called a brazen attack on press freedom.
President Cristina Kirchner said her government will turn to the courts in an effort to manage Papel Prensa SA and investigate human-rights violations, arguing the sale of the company to a group of Argentine newspapers in the mid-1970s was coerced by the then-military dictatorship. Ms. Kirchner said she will also ask Congress to declare the company a “national interest” to guarantee all media access to paper at the same price. In addition, Ms. Kirchner called for a Congressional committee to oversee Papel Prensa and take seats on the company’s board.
“Whoever controls Papel Prensa, controls the printed word,” Ms. Kirchner said, accusing the papers of maintaining a vertical monopoly.
Media companies, however, say the moves are the latest in a growing offensive by Ms. Kirchner to gag the media. Last week, the government revoked the Internet service license for Grupo Clarin SA, the country’s largest media group.
The moves are similar to actions by populist governments elsewhere in the region, including Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, which have passed laws that critics say are aimed at muffling an independent media.
In Venezuela, it is illegal to publish news accounts that might be deemed to “denigrate” President Hugo Chávez. While independent newspapers still operate there, Mr. Chávez has effectively silenced or closed nearly all major independent television stations.
The latest media controversy in Argentina stems from the purchase in 1976 of a majority stake in Papel Prensa by Clarin, La Nacion and a third newspaper, now defunct, from the Graiver family conglomerate. The government had, and maintains, a 28% stake in the paper maker.
At around the same time, the Graiver family was accused of having ties to the Montoneros, a Peronist guerrilla group that was fighting the military dictatorship. Several family members were arrested and tortured by the regime.
Officials from the current administration charge that the sale to Clarin and La Nacion was coerced, based in part on the testimony of the widow of David Graiver, Lidia Papaleo.
The newspapers insist the sale was legitimate, pointing out that family members were illegally arrested five months after the sale. They also say that although Ms. Papaleo has had many chances, she has never before testified about the purported extortion.
Clarin and La Nacion, the country’s two leading newspapers, said in a joint statement that both published on their front pages Tuesday, “Controlling the paper (supply) is controlling information, and this is what the government is trying to do through a variety of means.…”
Clarin quoted Elisa Carrio, an opposition lawmaker, as saying the Kirchner government was “pushing the boundary between democracy and authoritarianism.”
While the circumstances surrounding the sale remain murky, the Kirchner administration is clearly in a pitched battle with Grupo Clarin, and to a lesser extent La Nacion, which the administration accuses of trying to bring down its government with biased reporting.
The government has literally taken the gloves off. In a widely distributed video, Domestic Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno showed up at a recent Papel Prensa board meeting with a pair of boxing gloves, which he placed on a table before thundering, “There’ll be no vote here!”
Potentially most threatening to Clarin is the government-sponsored media law approved by Congress last year but now stalled in the courts. The bill aims to break up the dominance of current media outlets by a handful of companies, but critics charge it simply targets Clarin.
The law would prevent cable-service distributors from owning television stations on the same network. Clarin provides cable service and has one of Argentina’s leading news channels, TN, and one of its most popular entertainment channels, Canal 13.
Last week, the government revoked the license for Clarin’s Internet service provider, Fibertel, giving the company 90 days to wind up operations. Fibertel currently provides broadband service to more than a million customers—about 25% of Argentina’s market.
That followed the government takeover of soccer broadcasting rights from a Clarin joint venture last year and fining Clarin’s cable-television operator for monopolistic practices.
Also looming are government efforts to force the adopted children of Ernestina Herrera de Noble, the owner of the media conglomerate Clarin, to have genetic testing to determine if they were actually born to parents killed by the military dictatorship more than 30 years ago.
The children—Marcela and Felipe Noble Herrera—have resisted the efforts and are the sole heirs to Herrera de Noble’s large fortune.
Any doubt over the government’s linking the issues was dispelled by Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, an ardent user of Twitter, in June.
“Media Law, done. Papel Prensa, almost there. Felipe and Marcela’s origins, at any moment. Answer to three issues from the dictatorship with Memory, Truth and Justice,” Mr. Timerman tweeted.