The definition of the second electoral round on November 19 is taking place amid an economic crisis "fueled" by high levels of inflation and fiscal imbalances. The sustainability of the national newspaper industry, particularly the local media segment, is threatened by the drop in advertising revenues.
In this context, public policies and regulations to contribute to the sustainability of the newspaper industry become relevant, as suggested by Unesco, including the responsibility of digital platforms to recognize the value of the journalistic content they use. Google expanded its Showcase program to digital media not included in the original launch three years ago. The Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities (Adepa) highlighted the program's extension but pointed out that the funds are scarce for the economic revenues that journalistic content generates for the technological platforms and irrelevant in percentage terms concerning their turnover and that of the media. The advances of Artificial Intelligence on the indiscriminate use of journalistic content multiply the risks for the sustainability of the industry.
In the last semester, numerous attacks and threats against the press were registered. Drug trafficking intimidations continue in the city of Rosario, where at the end of April, the plant of radio 680Lt3 was shot at.
A constitutional reform project in the province of La Rioja, promoted by the local executive, generated concern. The governor stated that it was necessary to set limits to journalistic criticism. Previously, the governor had suggested that content transmission from specific television channels in Buenos Aires should be blocked at the local level.
In Salta, at the end of July, a risky bill imposing criminal penalties for the broadcasting of "false news" was approved by the Chamber of Deputies. The law allows the possibility of sanctioning citizens and the media with arrests and fines for disseminating content considered false by government authorities.
In the April report, it was informed that the National Communications Entity, which enforces the Media Law, had announced administrative proceedings against TV channels for editorial content with possible fines of up to 10% of the advertising turnover. The agency keeps these proceedings open without resolution, pressuring the affected media.
As regards violence against journalists, in May, there were threats with firearms against cameramen and reporters of TV channels LN+ and C5N during coverage in Lomas del Mirador, province of Buenos Aires.
In June, during an attack by demonstrators on the Legislature and the Constituent Assembly of Jujuy province, they assaulted camera operators and journalists of the TN channel with stones. They attacked the building of Jujuy's Channel 7. Also, a cameraman of the news agency Télam suffered the impact of a rubber bullet fired by police forces. Journalists of La Izquierda Diario denounced aggressions by the police.
Also in June, a Crónica HD team was attacked with stones by inhabitants of Barrio Emerenciano, in the province of Chaco, during the coverage of a homicide.
Journalist Luis Gasulla of the NA agency and Radio Rivadavia was attacked in Formosa province while covering provincial elections.
On July 30, Franco Vera, a photojournalist of La Gaceta, Tucumán, was arbitrarily detained by the police of the province of Santiago del Estero while he was covering incidents near a soccer stadium.
At the end of April, La Nación journalist Laura Di Marco was the victim of a campaign of harassment on social networks, with death threats for her statements in a television program about the daughter of Vice-President Cristina Kirchner.
In September, the children of C5N channel journalist Diego Brancatelli received threats on social networks due to their father's professional work. In those days, another C5N journalist, Pablo Duggan, was also threatened by a restaurant customer where the journalist was with his family.
In April, a group of hooded men put up intimidating posters against Clarín near its building. The posters were signed by the group "La patria es el otro" (The Homeland is the other).
The head of the Federal Intelligence Agency filed a criminal complaint against Joaquín Morales Solá, a journalist of La Nación, and his Clarín colleague Daniel Santoro, for the broadcasting of a request for reports by opposition legislators regarding the possible commission of crimes by intelligence agents.
In October, the television channel C5N, linked to Kirchnerism, deployed a smear campaign against journalist Hugo Alconada Mon and La Nación for investigations related to the economic maneuvers of the channel owners during Cristina Kirchner's administration.
That month, Vice-President Kirchner gave an interview to former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on the Latin American channel Russia Today, in which she insisted on her lawfare thesis, which proposes a regional connivance between sectors of the Judicial Power and the media to harass and politically annul popular leaders criminally.
Within the same thesis, in November, Congressman Rodolfo Tailhade accused several journalists of "answering' to a Court official and of carrying out "operations and maneuvers" to disqualify the impeachment of the High Court.
The relationship of presidential candidate Javier Milei with the press generated concern among press freedom organizations. Milei was the protagonist of more than twenty aggressions and intimidating attitudes against journalists, from insults to lawsuits. He also disqualified media such as La Nación or TN and made offensive accusations against journalists in general. On several occasions, he said that many of the criticisms he receives come from "enveloped journalists" concerning corrupt professionals he did not identify. The National Academy of Journalism, Adepa, Fopea, and the LED Foundation reproached Milei's inclination to slander journalists and the media. The candidate repeatedly declared that if he becomes President, he will eliminate official advertising, confusing public advertising with a subsidy, which clashes with the position of the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, which recognizes official advertising as a mechanism contributing to access to information and freedom of expression.
