Media outlets in Argentina warn of ‘hostile’ press climate under Milei

An association that groups Argentina's media outlets warned Friday of increasing “hostility” towards the press under President Javier Milei’s government.

The Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities (ADEPA) said at a meeting in Posadas, Misiones Province, that Milei’s “denigration” towards the media since taking office had opened the door to “physical violence” and online hate.

“The President's propensity to offend journalists and the media is disturbing democratic debate,” said ADEPA, which represents 180 media outlets, in a report.

“The presidential accusations and denigrations drive an army of trolls, with the protection of anonymity and opaque financing, who multiply verbal aggressions and thus open the way to physical violence. This hostile climate encourages self-censorship and disrupts journalistic activity,” the text reads.

Over the last two months, the association has counted more than 50 incidents in which journalists and media outlets have suffered “unfounded accusations and stigmatising disqualifications.”

Milei, who took office in December, is in the habit of criticising the media or journalists who are unfriendly to his policies and questioning them in his speeches, interviews or through his social network accounts on X and Instagram.

ADEPA also denounced the “numerous attacks on journalists covering demonstrations” in the last six months and condemned “the aggressions suffered by journalists who received injuries from rubber bullets from police forces and blows and insults from demonstrators” during a protest in front of Congress back in February.

Argentina’s media outlets urged “the national government, local authorities and the ruling class [to] assume the urgency of mitigating the climate of confrontation, guaranteeing full freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

ADEPA also branded “worrying” a decree published in early September that modifies a law that has guaranteed access to public information since 2016.

The decree significantly reduces the range of documents considered to be of legitimate public interest and multiplies exceptions that the Executive branch can invoke in order not to disclose private information.

“These are amendments that, because of their ambiguity and breadth, clash with the spirit of a rule that enshrines principles of ‘maximum disclosure’,” said ADEPA in its report. “Transparency is the rule; secrecy is the exception.”
 

– TIMES/AFP