Argentina

New York, December 8, 2009—The proposed appointment of four members of a seven-person Argentine media regulatory agency created under a government-sponsored broadcast law raises concerns about its independence, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. CPJ will monitor the law’s implementation to ensure that the agency is not subjected to undue political interference.

We issued the following statement today in response to Wednesday’s approval by the Argentine Senate of a government-sponsored bill that repeals criminal defamation provisions from the penal code...

New York, September 11, 2009—Two hundred tax agents raided the offices of Argentina’s largest daily, Clarín, on Wednesday after the paper ran a cover story alleging that a government agency improperly granted a farm subsidy, the local press said. The action, which Clarín decried as government intimidation, has intensified a fierce debate between President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration and Argentina’s largest media conglomerate over a proposed overhaul of broadcasting laws.

New York, February 19, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes a recent Argentine court ruling that orders the government to place state advertisements in critical publications.

Adding to a mounting body of international legal opinion, two landmark rulings held that public officials may not be shielded from public scrutiny. In May, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights voided a criminal defamation sentence against a local journalist and urged Argentina to reform its defamation laws in line with regional standards. Two months later, the country’s Supreme Court of Justice affirmed the “actual malice” standard in determining liability in defamation cases involving public officials.

The recent cancellation of a radio show hosted by prominent Argentine broadcast journalist Nelson Castro, a harsh critic of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's administration, sparked immediate controversy. Electroingeniería, the company that owns the Buenos Aires-based Radio Del Plata, announced on Friday that the news show "Puntos de Vista" (Points of View), which has been on the air for 16 years, will come to an end today, the local press reported.