Americas Extra: As Argentine Lawmakers Dawdle, A Watchdog Group Folds

By: Mark Fitzgerald The Argentinean Association for the Defense of Independent Journalism was born in a critical time for the press in Argentina.

Twelve years after democracy was restored, Argentina in 1995 was beginning to slip back into its repressive habits. Freedom House rated the country's press as only "partly free" -- and declining. By 1997, then-President Carlos Menem reacted to the threats and physical attacks against journalists not with sympathy, but with an insult of his own: Citizens, he said, "had a right to give [the press] a beating."

All the nation, though, was shocked by the murder of news magazine photographer Jos? Luis Cabezas, later revealed to be a professional hit financed by a businessman whose corruption Cabezas had helped expose.

But now, at yet another critical juncture for press freedom in Argentina, the organization- - which called itself Periodistas, or "journalists," for short -- has died. The Senate is considering freedom of information (FOI) proposals that, depending on who you talk to, will help or hurt the cause of transparency in a nation where government secrecy is second nature.

In a terse, even testy, press release issued in November, the organization said it had decided to dissolve. "After a long internal debate over the central goals of the entity, it wasn't possible to reach a consensus that integrated those distinct viewpoints," it stated. "Periodistas wasn't born to waste time in internal struggles, that never existed until now, but to defend freedom of expression in Argentina."

The statement was signed by the organization's leaders, a virtual Who's Who of Argentina journalists, including such internationally acclaimed figures as Horacio Verbitsky, Joaqu?n Morales Sol?, Oscar Serrat, and Magdalena Ruiz Gui?az?.

Periodistas didn't identify the cause of its rupture, but the Buenos Aires dailies Clar?n and Ambito said it centered around whether the so-called "Nudler" episode at a left-leaning Buenos Aires daily newspaper constituted censorship. The publisher of P?gina/12 refused to publish an article by journalist Julio Nudler that reportedly was scathingly critical of the present government's economic policies.

In the resulting internal fight, 10 high-profile journalists, including the syndicated columnist and "Santa Evita" novelist Tom?s Eloy Mart?nez, resigned from Periodistas.

The group is disappearing at a particularly inopportune time, say international free-press advocates. The FOI legislation -- which had once been expected to pass relatively quickly because of the enthusiasm for openness among the press and populace -- now is essentially stalled, said Kevin M. Goldberg, the Washington, D.C., attorney for the World Press Freedom Committee. Worse, the legislation's sponsor is considering changes that many consider worse than having no law at all, he said. This fall, Goldberg traveled to Argentina and Paraguay discuss FOI issues with journalists, judges, and legislators as part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored trip.

"They were the No. 1 group ... a true journalists trade association," he said of Periodistas. "Without them, [openness advocates] will have to rely on just general civil society groups or human rights organizations."

Ironically, the association's demise may have been sped by frustration over the pace of open-government legislation. "They were not very effective with [FOI]," Goldberg said, "and I think some of the journalists were not getting a lot of backing" from publishers.

Even among Latin American nations, which have been notorious for their lack of government transparency, Argentina stands out as secretive. The Budget Transparency Project, an international non-governmental organization, listed Argentina as third from the bottom on openness about government spending among 15 nations in the hemisphere. It received a rating of 44 on a scale in which 100 signifies full transparency.

FOI was a rare setback for a group that several times maneuvered to force free-press measures on the Argentine government. In 2000, for instance, it lodged a case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that resulted in the repeal of the nation's criminal-defamation laws. It rallied public outrage over violence against journalists and had organized campaigns with other groups throughout the hemisphere.

Periodistas' work in calling attention to abuses against journalists was far from over, too. On its now-inactive Web site, the headlines of the final alerts are a doleful reminder that violence and intimidation remains a fact of life for reporters, editors, and photographers in Argentina: "Journalist threatened with firearm;" "Journalists sentenced for not revealing sources;" "Government officials rebuke journalist;" "Access to public information threatened in provinces."

"Periodistas has done extremely important work uniting the Argentine media, defending local journalists, and promoting press freedom in Latin America," Ann Cooper, the executive director of the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement issued when the group folded. "We are disappointed about the group's dissolution and hope its members will continue to work to defend local journalists."

When Periodistas was formed in 1995, it declared itself a non-governmental organization "independent of the associations of media owners or the unions of workers."

Periodistas' departure leaves only one national journalists group, the Forum for Argentinean Journalism, known as FOPEA. It was formed about two years ago with the mission to be, in its words, "a space for reflection, dialogue and the promotion of quality journalistic standards."


PAN AM HIGHWAY
An occasional diary of events affecting Latin American newspapers and journalists

CUBA

With the release of independent journalist Jorge Olivera Dec. 3, the Castro government has released 15 of the 75 journalists and dissidents rounded up last year and sentenced to long prison terms. No explanation was given for the release of Olivera, a former producer for Cuba state television who went on to write critically about the government in an illegal independent magazine.

EL SALVADOR

In a year-end report on freedom of expression in the nation, the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES, for its initials in Spanish) said conditions had improved since President Elias Antonio Saca, a former radio-station magnate, succeeded Francisco Flores, a frequent critic of the press. Violence against journalists has declined and unfavorable legislation has been dropped, the union said.

MEXICO

A judge overturned the 1993 sale of what was once Mexico City's biggest paper, the tabloid La Prensa, The Associated Press reported Dec. 9. The judge ordered it returned to the employee cooperative that sold the paper in a disputed sale to Carlos Abedrop Davila. The paper has since undergone two ownership changes, and it was unclear how the sale dispute will be settled. Judge Alejandro Rivera Rodriguez said the cooperative members should pay back the payments they received, and take possession of the newspaper. Individual employees received between $50,000 to $300,000 at the time, depending on the number of shares they owned. The judge said cooperative members received only $70 million of the promised $90 million sales price.

NICARAGUA

The National Assembly of Nicaragua approved on first reading a change to Article 68 of the national constitution of 1995 to eliminate a clause exempting newspapers from paying taxes on newsprint and equipment, the Miami-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA) reported Dec. 29. "Final approval of the change is expected in January," the association warned. "It worries us that this may be a legislative trick to punish the media to for its critical stance," said Gonzalo Marroqu?n, chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and editor of the Guatemala City daily Prensa Libre. The IAPA does not seek special privileges, he added, but "cannot remain quiet when Principle 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which establishes that the State cannot apply economic measures to 'reward or punish the media or individual journalists,' is being violated." Eliminating the tax exemption is favored by the majority coalition of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Liberal Constitution Party.

PERU

A mob of peasants released provincial radio journalist Duber Mauriola Lab?n Dec. 29 after kidnapping and holding him for three days. The peasants accused Mauriola, who reports for a local radio station in northwestern Peru, of taking the side of a copper company they believe is polluting the area. Mauriola was beaten and taken to a village 10 hours away on foot. Police detained Federico Iba?ez, a journalist for a competing radio station, for allegedly urging the kidnappers to continue holding Mauriola, CPJ reported, citing an account in the El Comercio newspaper.

URUGUAY

Carlos Dogliani, a reporter for the weekly El Regional newspaper, was given a five-month suspended prison sentence for five counts of defamation filed by the Paysandu provincial Governor, Alvaro Lamas, IAPA reported. El Regional had reported that provincial officials exempted an individual from paying taxes without proper approval from a regulatory agency.