Summary
A pair of new laws recently passed by the Argentine government will greatly strengthen its control over the country's news media. The laws, one of which establishes government control over the price of newsprint, the other of which broadly defines terrorist acts in a manner that could include standard news reporting, are just the latest in a series of skirmishes between the Argentine government and media. However, the timing of these laws is noteworthy. As Argentina enters a period of increasing economic uncertainty, having greater power over the media will allow the government to better control information available to the public and presumably help to dampen extreme social reactions to economic turmoil and policy changes.
Analysis
The Argentine government passed in late December two laws that together will greatly strengthen control over Argentine media. The first gives the government control over the price and distribution of newsprint, wresting control from media giant Grupo Clarin, a government rival and the publisher of the country's most widely circulated newspaper. The law adopts a broad, vague definition of terrorism, which concerned media outlets fear will allow the government to prosecute journalists that report on issues of national concern.
This controversy is just the latest in a long-running battle between the government and the media in Argentina, but the timing is noteworthy, coming amid uncertain economic times when the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is undertaking potentially disruptive economic policy shifts. Having greater power over the media will allow the government to better control information available to the public and presumably help to dampen potential extreme social reactions to economic turmoil and policy changes. In a country where protests are frequent, the government will use any lever it can over the media to mitigate the potential for damaging unrest.
Controlling the Media
The company most affected by the newsprint law is Papel Prensa, which is responsible for 75 percent of the country's newsprint (the remaining 25 percent is imported). Grupo Clarin owns nearly half of the company, conservative newspaper La Nacion owns just over 22 percent, and the government owns the rest. The government's official reasoning for the law was that Papel Prensa was illegally purchased by Grupo Clarin, La Nacion and La Razon newspaper during the military dictatorship in 1976 (Fernandez is widely known for being an activist against the old military regime). However, the law's real purpose likely is to give the government additional control over the press. The government on Jan. 18 appointed Secretary of Interior Commerce Guillermo Moreno, who is known to be a tough negotiator, to coordinate newsprint pricing with Papel Prensa, a clear message that it intends to be heavily involved with the company.
The antiterrorism law amends Article 41 of the Argentine Penal Code, which gives guidelines to judges when determining sentencing for crimes, to include language that doubles the sentence of a convict who has been found to have committed a crime "with the purpose of terrorizing the population or that obligates the national public or foreign governments or agents from an international organization to carry out an act or abstain from acting." Controversy has arisen over the definition of "terrorizing the public;" social groups and media organizations argue that standard reporting of major economic issues such as Argentina's ongoing capital flight and inflation problems could be construed as terrorization if it prompts Argentines to convert their pesos to dollars, withdraw money from banks or take other action to protect their personal assets. With the 2001 currency and economic crisis still fresh in public memory, this is not a far-fetched scenario.
The government has denied that it intends to use the antiterrorism law in such a way, pointing to language that says it is not applicable "when the act involved had to do with exercising human rights and/or social rights or any other constitutional right." However, the government and media have a confrontational history, and thus the possibility cannot be ruled out. La Nacion and Grupo Clarin are both critical of the Kirchner administration, and both have historically supported military coups against the government. As a way to reduce the power of Clarin and La Nacion, the government passed an anti-monopoly law in 2009 specifically designed to force Grupo Clarin to sell off assets such as its cable television division.
Economic Uncertainty
The need to control the nature of discussion in Argentina is tightly linked to the government's ongoing economic policies. Argentina has existed in a state of continually increasing government spending in the wake of the 2001 crisis and subsequent debt default. Ongoing struggles to ameliorate the inflationary effect of excess government spending has led the government to under-report core inflation figures and has frequently brought the government into conflict with watchdog organizations. At this point, the government spending-driven economic recovery has begun to exhaust state coffers. As a result, in the wake of October presidential elections, the government announced cutbacks on subsidies for consumer goods, and a number of restrictions on currency exchange and capital repatriation have been put in place.
These changes, along with an expected global downturn resulting from financial chaos in Europe, are an indication that Argentina may be facing a period of economic and social instability. The concern for the government is to carefully manage the high inflation rate, capital flight, reduction of subsidies and reduced economic growth in order to prevent a crisis.
Advertising money from the central government is a key source of revenue for the news media, and the government certainly has the ability to bureaucratically harass these organizations, so it is unclear if the government will need to use these laws in order to control the media. Nonetheless, it now has them.
