Miami (September 11, 2009)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today protested the exaggeration evident in the operation by Argentina's government tax office involving more than 200 inspectors. It called the action at the headquarters of Buenos Aires newspaper Clarín, “intimidating” and part of a campaign of harassment of the paper.
The event occurred yesterday (September 10) afternoon when approximately 200 inspectors from the Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP) arrived at the Clarín Group headquarters of Clarín and two other newspapers, La Razón and Olé. Raids were made on the homes of executives of the Clarín Group and other associated companies, among them Artea and Cablevisión, simultaneously. The show of force was to inspect tax-related information, Clarín reported.
IAPA President Enrique Santos Calderón, editor of the Bogotá, Colombia, newspaper El Tiempo, declared, “It is hard to believe that this was merely a routine inspection by the tax office, coming as it does against a series of previous attempts to intimidate the newspaper.” He added, “It is our hope the acts are done legally and that the authorities investigate the methods used to avoid the mistaken appearance that they are dealing with criminals with the intent of undermining the paper’s credibility as a new media outlet.”
Especially notable is the fact that the head of the Federal Public Revenue Administration, Ricardo Echegaray, said he did not order the Clarín inspection, while Government Cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández distanced himself from the operation and announced he would investigate.
Clarín, Argentina’s largest-circulation newspaper, initially linked the tax office operation to a report published the same morning about an alleged unlawful 10 million peso subsidy to a cattle raising company without the authorization of the National Agricultural and Livestock Commerce Control Office (ONCCA), under Echegaray’s supervision.
The IAPA, together with other national and international press organizations, has condemned attacks on Clarín executives, its offices, the painting of slogans and graffiti against the newspaper and the March blocking of the Clarín Group satellite signal which interrupted broadcast by its audiovisual media.
For his part, the chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, declared, “beyond the federal tax office fulfilling its responsibilities, we are concerned with this act of intimidation which, it appears, is intended to limit freedom of the press and send a warning to critical media,” especially at this time of dissension between the press and the government over the debate on a proposed new Audiovisual Services Law which would regulate broadcasting in the country.
The IAPA has also called attention to criticisms, name-calling, discrediting campaigns and confrontation by the government against independent news media, all of which has increased in recent weeks during the current discussion of the planned broadcast legislation.
