The Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities (ADEPA) celebrated the institutional continuity of the country,
in the year that marks the 40th anniversary of the recovery of democracy
.
And he stressed that throughout this period the entity "severely questioned the attempts of the State to restrictively regulate the exercise of the informative task or damage the economic viability of the journalistic companies that support it."
ADEPA especially mentioned the fundamental importance that journalistic work
has had and the role of the media in the consolidation of democracy.
But he warned about the institutional, economic and social debts that remain in Argentina.
“However, none of this relativizes the conquest of individual and collective freedoms, nor the importance of alternately electing those who govern us, or of having achieved notable advances in respect for minorities and thus having limits to absolute power ”, said
the Freedom of the Press report of the entity that groups the Argentine media.
In addition, ADEPA stated that
it hopes that this election year will take place "in a climate of tolerance for dissent and criticism
, and therefore favorable to the free labor of information."
It is that frequently "intemperate expressions tend to be heard, which aim to blame journalism for being the bearer of the news, and which are formulated with the intention of exposing it as a political adversary."
Martín Etchevers, president of the ADEPA Press Freedom Commission
, said it
during the reading of the semi-annual report on the situation of the sector, within the framework of the 181st Board of Directors of the entity, in the city of Buenos Aires.
The report was unanimously approved by the attendees.
There it was stated that "society learned long ago that the problems that affect its daily life are not the responsibility of those who communicate them
.
It would therefore be healthy for political power, in its different levels and party affiliations, to understand that it
is not pointing to journalism that the deep problems that the country is going through will be solved".
"Neither is holding the press responsible for the specific judicial investigations faced by those who manage public resources. Professional journalism, here and in the world, has as one of its objectives to audit power, shed light on the darkest folds of the administrations, and bring to debate issues concerning the suitability and transparency of government acts. Wielding
dialectical ideological constructions such as that of 'lawfare' or that of the 'media-judicial mafia'
does not replace the reliable verification of the concrete facts nor the duty to account for them," said ADEPA.
Martín Etchevers, president of the ADEPA Press Freedom Commission, reads the semi-annual report on the situation of the sector, at the 181st Board of Directors of the entity, in Buenos Aires.
And he affirmed that "
for a free and professional press to exist, its sustainability must also be guaranteed."
For this reason, governments around the world are collaborating with fiscal measures, with non-governmental state investment and, "above all, putting on the agenda the need for digital platforms to recognize the value that journalistic content brings to their lucrative business and reward it accordingly." fair way".
ADEPA questioned the recent modification made by the Government of
the regulations for the distribution of official advertising,
"since it could generate greater arbitrariness in its distribution, reduce objective criteria in its recipients or end up conditioning the content."
Attacks, violence and conditioning
"Without free journalism there is no democracy,"
said the ADEPA report.
"It is no coincidence that drug trafficking and mafias, like authoritarian powers, have the press in their sights as an enemy to be eliminated."
There it was warned that in the last semester
"a form of violence that has no precedent in our country" intensified, especially in the city of Rosario
.
"This puts at risk not only the journalistic exercise but the very foundations of social coexistence."
"Faced with the threats that seek to prevent the organized crime plot from coming to light, which crosses the different spheres of society, Argentine journalism is responding with a daily lesson in professional reliability
and pure civility
," said Etchevers.
ADEPA explained that journalism has been warning about this phenomenon.
"It has become the target of armed attacks and threats that seek to intimidate it and restrict its work. In less than two months, the
Televisión Litoral
facilities were the target of two shootings that fortunately did not produce fatalities, and in the surroundings of the
Telefe channel
Rosario,
intimidating posters with the mafia seal appeared.
The entity recalled that the crime against José Luis Cabezas was "the most serious attack against the press since the return of democracy."
For this reason, "today we must remember every day the journalists threatened by drug trafficking and
deplore the public embrace between one of those convicted of the Cabezas crime and the lawyer Fernando Burlando
, currently in the electoral campaign" in the province of Buenos Aires.
The entity mentioned cases of "harassment and persecution of journalists and editors by officials", among which it pointed out the judicial complaint of the then head of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) -current chief of staff-, Agustín Rossi, against
the journalists Daniel Santoro and Joaquín Morales Solá and the newspapers Clarín and La Nación.
He also highlighted an "espionage and criminalization plan against Nahuel Caputto, a journalistic editor from Santa Fe and a member of this organization, commanded by
the former security minister of that province, Marcelo Saín."
And also in Santa Fe, the attitude of the provincial senator Armando Traferri
, "who, before different newspaper articles, reiterates an intimidating attitude and alleged intimidation against his authors."
"It is essential to understand that attacks on the press in any of its forms, including, by the way, those that affect its economic viability, result in the weakening of the democratic system. Freedom of expression, freedom of information and the free exercise of journalism
are not mere issues of one sector, they are issues of all"
, concluded ADEPA.
look also
They denounce that in 2022 attacks against journalists and restrictions on freedom of expression increased
look also
Fernando Burlando explained why he is campaigning with one of the murderers of José Luis Cabezas
look also
The National Academy of Journalism repudiated Agustín Rossi's complaint against journalists from Clarín and La Nación: "He intends to criminalize journalistic practice"