Editor-in-chief of the Buenos Aires Times.
The Argentine government has ordered the closure of thirteen provincial branches of national news company Telam, after postponing the company’s operations in March to audit its operations.
In a statement issued on Thursday through the company’s mayor, Diego Martín Chaher, addressed to Télam workers and distributed to the press, he called for “the execution of the operational closure of correspondents” in 11 of the 23 provinces and the capital where the state is located. operates the news company.
The offices involved are located in the provinces of Chaco, Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, La Pampa, Misiones, Río Negro, Salta, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Corrientes and Mendoza.
Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni told a news conference Friday that “if the company closes because the staff is on leave, it doesn’t make sense to have correspondents in the country. “
“It’s just a matter of common sense,” he added.
On March 3, the government of President Javier Milei suspended Télam’s activities, relieved it of its functions, and closed two of its offices in the capital, Buenos Aires.
Milei harshly criticized Argentina’s state-run news agency, describing the 78-year-old as a tool of “propaganda. “
Since then, the agency has been closed with the mention “page in reconstruction,” while several former workers opened their own site: somostelam. com. ar.
The closure of the state-owned news company was accompanied by the cancellation of all weekend news and the suspension of almost all live broadcasts on public television channels.
In addition, paid vacations at Radio Nacional, Argentina’s public broadcaster, were reduced. Almost 50 stations in the interior of the country had to cancel their weekend systems and retransmission systems from Buenos Aires.
According to a report this week by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Argentina has fallen 26 places to 66th in the World Press Freedom Index.
“The situation is worrying in Argentina since President Javier Milei came to power, whose competitive stance towards journalism hinders pluralism,” the report says.
At the beginning of February, Milei’s government had decreed that Telam would be placed under guardianship for one year. The president intervened in the functioning of all state media outlets to “change the organizational and functional structure” of the bodies.
The measure involved public radio and television, Télam, the educational portal Educ. ar, the Center for Audiovisual Production and the Argentine Audiovisual Bank of Universal Content (BACUA).
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