Arson attack on the premises of a radio station

Expression

Defending public media

On 10th April 2023, the Coalition for Democratic Communication (CCD) of Argentina issued a statement defending the role of public media in the face of a smear campaign that seeks to close or privatise the outlets. The CCD defends the existence of "national, provincial, municipal and university public media" as a guarantee for the diversity of voices and the exercise of freedom of expression, as established in Law 26.522 on Audiovisual Communication Services and in various regulations in the region.

Head of the Federal Intelligence Agency denounces journalists and media outlets

On 3rd January 2023, the head of the Federal Intelligence Agency, Agustín Rossi, filed a complaint against journalists Joaquín Morales Solá and Daniel Santoro and the newspapers La Nación and Clarín. The complaint related to two articles about an opposition request for reports on the existence of a "military desk" in the Ministry of Defence, where intelligence work was allegedly being carried out. One of the articles revealed the identity of two intelligence agents allegedly linked to the Ministry of Defence. Rossi accused the journalists of violating the intelligence law and charged them with crimes punishable to up to six years in prison. On 20th April 2023, the case was dismissed because the prosecutor considered that the alleged acts had been carried out in the context of journalistic work.

Arson attack on the premises of a radio station

In the early hours of 5th January 2023, unknown persons set fire to the premises of FM Horizonte 95.1 in the town of Villa Bonita, in the municipality of Campo Ramón (Misiones). Ricardo Endrich, journalist, owner of the radio station and president of the local volunteer fire brigade, quickly extinguished the flames.

According to the Argentina Journalism Forum - Fopea, Endrich said the arson attack could be linked to a political programme he had included in his programming.

Attacks and harassment of journalists

In recent months, there have been several incidents of aggression against and attacks on journalists by security forces and other members of society. Some of the most significant cases are detailed below:

• On 12th January 2023, during the inauguration of a modular hospital in Los Cardales (Exaltación de la Cruz, Buenos Aires) by President Alberto Fernández, the police attacked and detained journalist Sebastián Vargas of FM Los Cardales. The journalist was covering the event, and as he was recording the clashes that led to the arrest of activists (detailed in Peaceful Assembly), he was insulted by a person in civilian clothes who wanted him to stop filming. Despite identifying himself as a journalist, the individual took the mobile phone he was filming with, put his arm around his neck and cut off his breathing. He was then placed in a patrol car and taken to the local police station, where he was detained for four hours.
• On 10th February 2023, while covering a murder case in Fray Luis Beltrán, journalist Pablo Soria of the newspaper El Ciudadano was assaulted by relatives of the victim. The journalist received blows to the head and eye and had to be treated at the local hospital.
• On 15th February 2023, Buenos Aires police violently repressed journalists covering a protest by residents against power cuts in the Villa Lugano neighbourhood. The Crónica TV team, composed of journalist Alejandro Pueblas, cameraman Rolando Bazán and assistant cameraman Alejandro Cóceres, was the hardest hit. They obeyed the police order to leave the Dellepiane highway and, despite identifying themselves as journalists, were pushed, assaulted, and beaten by members of the Buenos Aires security forces. In the same way, Leandro Teisseyre, a photojournalist for the newspaper Página/12, was insulted and assaulted by the police when he tried to photograph the arrest of one of the demonstrators. During the scuffle, Teisseyre managed to protect his camera by passing it to a colleague.
• On 27th March 2023, social leader Juan Grabois verbally attacked journalist Cristina Pérez during an interview on the programme Cristina sin vueltas (Radio Rivadavia). According to the Argentina Journalism Forum - Fopea, the social leader insulted the journalist, using words such as liar, xenophobe, racist and fascist.

Cyber-bullying of journalists

• For several days in February 2023, Marina Abiuso, a journalist and the gender editor at TN, was the victim of harassment on social media. With aggressive and violent messages, users of Twitter and other platforms harassed the journalist with false accusations about her coverage of a trial for the murder of a minor. Among other things, Abiuso had to close her Twitter account.
• In April 2023, journalist Laura Di Marco, presenter of the LN+ channel, was the victim of a cyber-bullying campaign that included death threats against her and her daughter. The threats against Di Marco were in response to comments on the health of Florencia Kirchner, daughter of vice-president Cristina Kirchner, during a talk with journalist Viviana Canosa on her programme Viviana + on 6th April.

In addition, on 20th April 2023, the government filed a complaint with the National Communications Authority (Enacom) against journalists Viviana Canosa and Laura Di Marco for using "violent, discriminatory and insulting" language against Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her daughter Florencia.

According to the newspaper Clarín, Enacom has opened an investigation "into the alleged violation of the Law on Audiovisual Communication Services (LSCA) in the programme +Viviana" and stated that "if the investigation confirms this violation, it will apply the measures provided for in article 102" of the law "so that the person responsible for the LN+ signal can defend himself".

Limitations on freedom of expression

The LED Foundation (Freedom of the Press + Democracy) presented its annual report entitled – Restrictions on the Exercise of Freedom of Expression - Argentina 2022. The report reveals that in 2022 there were 182 cases of direct or indirect censorship or other actions that limited or restricted the freedom of expression or access to information for journalists or citizens in Argentina. The report's main themes are the confrontation between the government and the press and the use of the courts as an instrument of direct or indirect censorship.

Another concern to which the report pays particular attention to is the increasing activities of organised crime against the press, particularly in the city of Rosario. In 2022, 288 people from Rosario were murdered, and according to the report, "this escalation continues, and there are already fears for the physical integrity of journalists, who have been threatened in various incidents over the last year".

Peaceful Assembly

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination observations

On 28th April 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) published concluding observations on Argentina's combined 24th to 26th periodic reports. The CERD comprises 18 independent experts elected by secret ballot by States that have ratified the 1969 Convention on the subject and act voluntarily.

The independent experts were particularly concerned about "racial profiling by police forces and other law enforcement officials". They recommended training for law enforcement officials on the discriminatory nature of racial profiling.

Harassment of and discrimination against indigenous, African, and other communities is also seen in violations of "freedom of peaceful assembly", with "increasing legislative measures and initiatives at the provincial level that unduly restrict" this right.

Three activists arrested

On 11th January 2023, during the inauguration of a modular hospital in Los Cardales, a town in the Buenos Aires municipality of Exaltación de la Cruz, three members of the environmental group Exaltación Salud were arrested for demonstrating against the use of toxic agrochemicals. The activists had a banner that read: "Stop cancer. Stop fumigating us". The police arrested the activists and a journalist who recorded the events. After four hours in the Los Cardales police station and the filing of a habeas corpus, they were released but charged with resisting arrest. The provincial police claimed that they acted on orders from Presidential Security.

Exaltación Salud is an environmental group created in 2012 to lobby against the use of fumigations with toxic agrochemicals that reach this district's homes, schools, and waterways.

Wichí defend ancestral land

On 2nd December 2022, the indigenous Wichí community gathered in an encampment in the area known as La Picada on the side of Route 53 to defend their ancestral territory. More than 60 Wichí families gathered to prevent the clearing of land between Misión Chaqueña and Carboncito de Embarcación. According to them, the landowner bought part of their territory in November 2022.

According to Agencia de Noticias REDacción, a member of the Wichí community stated that, "We have received threats through audio messages. We don't want them to come and take possession of our ancestral lands".

Association

Third Plurinational Parliament of Indigenous Women and Diversities

From 22nd to 25th May 2023, 250 women from more than 20 indigenous groups living in Argentina, together with guests from Bolivia and Mexico, participated in the Third Plurinational Parliament of Indigenous Women and Diversities in Chicoana, in the Lerma Valley.

The Parliament was organised by members of the Indigenous Women's Movement for a Good Life (Movimiento de Mujeres Indígenas por el Buen Vivir). One of the aims of the gathering was to make a collective statement against chineo, the systematic rape of indigenous girls by criollos, to declare it a hate crime, call for its abolition and make it a punishable offence.