Argentina

Gregorio Ríos, sentenced to life in prison in 2000 after being convicted of instigating the 1997 murder of Argentine photographer José Luis Cabezas, was released on parole today. In response, we issued the following statement...

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.

According to a report released today by the nonprofit Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (Association for Civil Rights), or ADC, the Argentine government drastically increased its advertising budget in 2007, using public funds to reward friendly media, punish critical outlets, and promote the political campaign of current President Cristina Fernández who replaced her husband Néstor Kirchner last December. The federal government spent more than 322 million pesos (US$105 million) on official ads in 2007, a 55 percent increase over the same period in 2006, ADC said in its survey.

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.

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.

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.