04 Oct 11 | Americas, Mexico
Like in a good spy novel, Santiago O’Donnell met Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks, in an English country house after taking a serpentine route. There he received instructions on how to obtain the 2600 US State Department cables on Argentina. The release of the cables comes at a time of much friction between the Argentine media and President Cristina Kirchner.
O’Donnell, international editor for the left of centre newspaper Pagina 12, published several stories on the controversial batch of documents, but then went one step further; he wrote a bestseller, ArgenLeaks, in which he published the contents of the cables providing context and a sense timing to each of them. Organised alphabetically, the cables deal with such items as the relationship between Argentina’s largest daily Clarin and the US Embassy. It touches on the Valijagate, the story involving Antonini Wilson, the Venezuelan businessman who was caught with $800,000 and said it was money for the 2007 presidential campaign of Christina Kirchner. The case caused a serious breakdown in relations between the US and the new Kichner administration.
The book explains how it was all a misunderstanding that was expertly cleared up by the then Ambassador to Argentina Anthony Wayne. Some of the cables describe intricate political scandals better understood by Argenphiles, but there is a lot for general readers. In one interesting chapter on the Piqueteros, the social movement in Argentina, O’Donnell explains how the tone in the cables on these groups of protesters — there are several — who block roads to trigger government action to social demands, change when the Obama Administration comes into office. O’Donnell, a sort of curmudgeon of Argentinian journalism, says he wrote the book “as a rebellious act” to show how polarised Argentina’s media has become. The book shows that is not true that the pro-government dailies write about one half of Argentina’s reality and the opposition media about the other half, says O’Donnell. The truth is that neither of them writes about certain issues, he emphasises.
11 Aug 11 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost
Argentina‘s National Criminal Court has issued an interim order to block a website and blog used to expose corruption and ordered the National Communications Commission to instruct all internet service providers to temporarily block access to them. Using the motto “Let’s stop lies and hypocrisy”, leakymails.com sought to obtain and publish emails either from official or personal accounts, pictures, videos or any other document exposing misbehaviours or unethical actions of public figures. Dr Esteban José Rosa Alves, General Director of the Argentinean Ministry of National Security, denounced the websites to the judicial authorities, arguing that their content jeopardised national security and risked the privacy of a number of public functionaries.
03 Aug 11 | Index Index, minipost
Carlos Walker, news editor for the site 0223.com.ar, was beaten and shot in the leg on 29th July in Mar del Plata, eastern Argentina, while reportedly photographing posters that featured political propaganda. In another episode in the country, journalist Leo Graciarena and graphic reporter Francisco Guillén, of the newspaper La Capital, were attacked by armed individuals while investigating a poor settlement in the city of Rosario, the paper said.
05 May 11 | News and features
Argentina has found an effective way of stifling independent inflation data — fining economists who question the official government statistics. Ed Stocker reports
In Argentina, inflation is never far from the media agenda. Primetime news channels endlessly debate the monthly rises in the canasta básica — the basic monthly family shopping basket — and the apparent divergence from official statistics.
Expressing contrasting views about the level of inflation in the country has become a divisive issue, highlighted by the decision of Internal Commerce Secretariat to fine several companies in April over their price-rise data.
Companies fined include Estudio Bein & Asociados, Finsoport, M&S Consultores and GRA Consultoras, as well as Graciela Bevacqua, a former employee of Indec, the state organisation charged with gathering statistics.
The secretariat claimed companies were being fined for publishing information that lacked “scientific rigour”, adding that if it was broadcast by media organisations it could “lead to error, deception or confusion”.
Miguel Kiguel , a former economist for the World Bank and head of the Econviews financial consultancy, received a fine of AR$500,000 (£73,000) for his forecast.
Speaking to Index on Censorship, he said: “This whole episode [fine] is surprising. The process is based on fair commerce laws that don’t apply to professional services and misleading advertising –– but we don’t carry out any type of advertising.
“It’s a way of scaring professionals who suggest that inflation is higher than the figures published by Indec.”
Asked if the government’s actions amounted to a freedom of expression violation, he replied: “Effectively these fines limit freedom of expression. The whole case is based on public declarations that I made in newspapers and on the radio. It is very worrying that one can receive very high fines for expressing one’s opinion on inflation and monetary policy.”
Last Thursday (28 April ) members of the Internal Commerce Secretariat defended their decision to impose fines. El Cronista Comericial, a newspaper that had previously questioned the reasons behind the fines, published an article by Internal Commerce national director Fernando Carro and Graciela Peppe, entitled “The truth will make us free”.
In the article they wrote: “One cannot assume that the resolutions behind the fines violate rights guaranteed by the National Constitution… Claiming that the fines infringe constitutional rights has no basis.” They added that suggesting government actions were an act of censorship showed a “profound confusion”.
The article continued: “From the ongoing investigation it has been possible to prove that the levels [of inflation] ascertained and disseminated by the firms that have been punished are little more than an artificial invention, based on reflections lacking the smallest hint of reliability.”
Earlier this year Indec published its figures for 2010, stating that inflation for the year was 10.9 per cent. Other economists suggest the unofficial figure is closer to 25 per cent.
Last April a group of pro-government activists interrupted the launch of a new book criticising Indec at Buenos Aires’ annual Feria del Libro (Book Fair). Gustavo Noreiga’s Indek: historia íntima de una estafa (Indek: the intimate story of a fraud) criticises the running of the statistics body, claiming President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner exercises political control over it.
Ed Stocker is a freelance writer based in Buenos Aires and London
