Miami (November 27, 2012)—The naming of six Argentine journalists in a lawsuit filed by a media group alleging “incitement to violence” brought a sharp protest today from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). The suit also included senior government officials.
On November 22 the news media conglomerate Grupo Clarín filed a criminal lawsuit alleging “incitement to violence and aggravated coercion” by Justice Minister Julio Alak, Legal and Technical Secretary for the Presidency Carlos Zannini, and the Chair of the body overseeing the application of the new “media law,” Martín Sabbatella.
But the suit also included “as propagators” of “incitement to violence” six journalists supporting the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – Roberto Caballero, Sandra Russo, Javier Vicente, Nora Veiras, Edgardo Mocca and Orlando Barone.
“The Grupo Clarín has every right to defend itself from the constant attacks that receives from the government, but it should not sue journalists for what they report or give opinions on, because that would go against freedom of expression,” declared Claudio Paolillo, Chair of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
In a press release issued a few hours ago, Grupo Clarín clarified that with the lawsuit “we are not seeking to impute any journalist,” but “only to have them be witnesses” so that “if they have any information about the matters complained about, they can provide it.”
In its lawsuit Grupo Clarín asked the courts to open an investigation “to determine if a series of public actions and statements by officials had behind them “an ideological authorship with intent to constitute the offense of incitement to collective violence (Article 212 of the Penal Code).” These actions and statements included a public call to combat Clarín’s media outlets, their journalists and executives and accusations that the Group was attacking democracy and that it was responsible for abductions or the revolt of security forces.
Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, expressed satisfaction at Grupo Clarín’s clarification that it does not seek to hold the journalists criminally responsible, but he made it clear that even as “witnesses” they cannot be forced to provide any kind of information to the courts.
The IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that “every person has the right to seek and receive information, express opinions and disseminate them freely, that “no one may restrict or deny these rights” and that “no journalist may be forced to reveal his or her sources of information.”
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.
