The systematic attack on the press began from the first day of administration when he suspended the media program for a year in what was the prolegomena of his strategy of financially suffocating his “enemies.”. It became more evident weeks later with his attempt to discipline wayward governors through financial suffocation.
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The consequences of this systematic attack on the media alarm the sector both in Argentina and in the rest of the world. Proof of this is the collapse of Argentina in the ranking that measures press freedom in the world every year.
Since Milei’s arrival at the Casa Rosada the Argentina fell 26 places in said ranking and the organization in charge of preparing the statistics warned that the coming to power of the libertarian leader “marks a new and worrying turning point for the guarantee of the right to information in the country”.
The report “World Press Freedom Classification 2024: the dangers of the deception industry”, prepared by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) placed Argentina in 66th place out of a total of 180 countries. The ranking is led by Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland.
The entity defined the Argentina as a country with “significant problems” regarding Freedom of the Press. Neighboring countries such as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay are in the same situation.
“On a global scale, a confirmation is necessary: freedom of the press is threatened by the same people who should be its guarantors, the political authorities. Of the five indicators that make up the countries’ score, the political indicator is the one that decreases the most in 2024, with a drop of 7.6 points.”noted the new edition of the World Press Freedom Index prepared by Reporters Without Borders.
Regarding Argentina, the organization details that “The high concentration and opacity of media ownership, polarization, the absence of public policies to guarantee plurality, as well as the precariousness of the practice of journalism constitute the main threats to press freedom. in Argentina”.
“All of this paves the way for pressure from the Government and companies through private and state advertising, and the partisan use of national, provincial and municipal public media,” says RSF.
lanata milei fight – part 1
And he warns: “The arrival to power of Javier Milei, openly hostile to the press, marks a new and worrying turning point for the guarantee of the right to information in the country“.
In the previous edition of the Reporters Without Borders ranking, Argentina had obtained position number 40, that is, it fell 26 places.
The days before the libertarian took office at the head of the Casa Rosada, RSF had stated that it would follow Milei’s mandate “closely” because it considered that his “aggressiveness towards the press is a warning sign.”
Then, before the Government’s decision to close the state news agency Télam, the organization had stated that it dealt “a hard blow to the right to information” in Argentina.
In its latest report, Reporters Without Borders warned that “the exercise of plurality is conditioned by deficits in public policies and by high concentration” and also pointed to the fact that ““In recent decades, political confrontation has had a direct reflection on the media sector, with an impoverishment in the quality of analysis and information.”
lanata milei fight – part 2
“The promotion of hatred and violence finds echo in media of various tendencies. Delicate social, economic and political issues are kept out of public debate, and the media agenda is highly concentrated in large cities, especially Buenos Aires. The far-right president Javier Milei, elected in 2023, encourages attacks on journalists and attacks to discredit media and reporters critical of his policies. It is spread widely by its supporters,” the report warns.
After emphasizing that “more subtle attempts at silencing persist, such as economic pressure and the abuse of civil lawsuits” against journalists, RSF points out that “the Argentine press is affected by the persistent economic difficulties of the last decade, which have made employment and resources precarious.”
Finally, the report maintains that “Reporters are exposed to being the target of intimidation by criminal organizations (drug trafficking, human trafficking, police mafias, etc.) and police violence when they cover demonstrations.
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