The Day Argentina’s Media Protested

Argentina’s farmers have been on strike for most of the past three months. Among other things, they are protesting because they say the government does not talk with them. The government, farmers say, is “autistic” in its approach to governance. The government, they say, has difficulty relating with others and its perception of reality is more fantastical than realistic. Government officials impose policies on the agriculture sector, farmers say, without any kind of previous consultation or notice. The government is closed to dialogue and consensus.

Some of this behavior also prevails in the government’s relationship with the media. The government does not hold press conferences. It does not grant interviews. Like her husband and predecessor, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner refuses to engage the media. She scoffs at interview requests. So do most of her cabinet members. It is almost impossible to get any high ranking government official to speak openly and on the record about anything of significance. Since 2003 government contact with the media largely has been limited to episodic interactions with comedians from Caiga Quien Caiga (CQC), a popular TV show hosted by Mario Pergolini. President Kirchner has a press chief. His name is Miguel Nuñez. He is a spokesman in name only. He does not speak with the press. He does not grant interviews or help journalists get interviews with anyone in the government. It is not clear exactly what he does, but one thing he certainly does not do is engage the media.

But the government’s distaste for the press does not stop here. Both Cristina and Nestor Kirchner slam journalists for writing articles or columns that question government policies. Moreover, the government spends millions each year to put paid advertisements in newspapers large and small. Oddly, some of the smallest, least read papers have received a disproportionately large amount of advertising money. Writing earlier this year, dissident journalist, and founder of the newspaper Crítica, Jorge Lanata, said this about the matter: “The great majority of local and national media companies receive an extortive amount of advertising money that the government reminds them about any time they express even minimal dissidence.”

Cristina has complained often that local newspapers say only negative things about the government.. “It seems like there is a prohibition against telling Argentines that things are going better for us or that good things are happening in the Republic…,” the president said recently. In an effort to better control the media, Cristina proposed creating a Media Observatory. The idea has been widely criticized by many in, well, the media.

Famed Argentine political cartoonist Sábat published this drawing in Clarin in April. Cristina reacted furiously, and accused Sábat, who has long been know as a defender of democratic liberties, of trying to silence her through this a “mafioso-like message.” She said that Argentina’s “multimedia generals” were similar to the tank commanders who in 1976 had overthrown the country’s democratic government. The cartoon could have been interpreted in several ways, none of which had anything to do with a mafioso-like message. One interpretation was simply that it was Cristina’s husband, Nestor, who actually spoke for the government (and determined policy) and not the president herself.

The government’s refusal to speak with reporters hinders their ability to gather accurate and objective information. It makes it harder for them to accurately and objectively present all sides of all stories. How can a reporter write accurately and comprehensively about the government’s approach to the farm conflict, for example, if government officials refuse to answer questions about the problem? The government’s hermetic approach to communication also makes it hard for citizens to measure the reliability of media reports.

When government officials talk to the press, they typically do so off the record and anonymously. But if the only stories that make it into the papers are stories based on comments from anonymous sources, how can citizens (or the government itself, for that matter) confirm the story’s accuracy? This presents a problem for society at large. It also makes it easier for malevolent journalists, editors and media companies to publish information that is fictional. After all, if a reporter invents a quote from a certain unnamed official, how can anyone know that the quote is, in fact, real? This problem also affects the private sector, where business leaders hesitate to give on-the-record interviews because of fear that the government will castigate them for expressing even minimal disagreement with official policies.

I was thinking about all of this over the weekend as Argentina celebrated the Day of the Journalist. It wasn’t much of a celebration, really. Nobody really knows about the day except for journalists and PR types. Nevertheless, as a journalist, this was my day and I gave my due attention to pondering its significance.

The Day of the Journalist is officially recognized on June 7th. In 1938 Argentina’s Congress founded the Day of the Journalist to commemorate the day in 1810 that Mariano Moreno founded the Gazeta de Buenos Aires, which was the newly independent country’s first newspaper.

All of this led me to wonder what it might look like if Argentina’s media companies, reporters and journalists, decided to protest the government’s treatment of the press. What would happen if – like the farmers – writers, reporters, newscasters and radio talk show hosts decided to highlight the silent treatment they get from the government? Imagine if they decided to protest for just one day. News radio stations would fall silent. Broadcast news networks would show nothing or possibly show an empty television studio, with empty seats and blank background TV screens. Newspapers would publish the paper, but it would have no content, just blank pages, one after another, all designed to focus the readers’ attention on the government’s refusal to communicate and to be held accountable for anything publicly.

*CQC is on Monday’s at 10:30pm on TELEFE

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