Miami (October 29, 2012)— The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) deplores another attack on press freedom in Argentina that once again prevented the distribution of the two newspapers with the largest national circulation.
In the early hours of today a group of people identifying themselves as members of the Newspaper and Magazine Vendors Labor Union blocked the exit of the newspapers Clarín and La Nación in demand for a bigger percentage of the sales price.
“The action of those individuals is a flagrant attack on press freedom, in that some people gave themselves the right to prevent two newspapers from reaching their readers and moreover acted against the citizens’ right to receive information and opinions that those papers had to offer them,” declared Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
This was not the first time that such an attack was made on the fundamental right of newspapers and the people for information to flow freely in Argentina. Last year there were five blockades of newspapers and this was the second to occur in the last three months.
Government officials and police failed to intervene – as on all the other occasions – so as to defend the human right to freedom of expression being in force, ignoring very clear court rulings previously issued.
Omar Plaini, one of the leaders of the Newspaper and Magazine Vendors Labor Union, attacked Clarín, La Nación and a third newspaper, Perfil – the three Buenos Aires papers independent of the government and punished by arbitrary placement of official advertising – declaring he was sure that “the government is going along with us on this.”
Paolillo said, “It is a serious matter that groups act against the law and a fundamental human right, and more so is the passive conduct of the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, which systematically turns its gaze away every time these attacks are confirmed.”
In August, during the last blockade of those same newspapers, the Association of Argentine News Entities (ADEPA) condemned the incident and said that preventing the distribution of papers and magazines is “a clear form of censorship.”
The IAPA-inspired Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that “No one may restrict or deny” the people’s right to “receive information, express opinions and disseminate them freely” and that “restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports … directly contradict freedom of the press.”
And the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression declares that “restrictions on the free circulation of ideas and opinions … and the creation of obstacles to the free flow of information violate the right to freedom of expression.”
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
