As Argentina Seizes Newsprint, Press Freedom Suffers
What's the oldest trick in the dictator's handbook? Why, to seize the
newsprint. Fresh from a big electoral win, Argentina's President Cristina
Fernandez has pulled that hoary stunt, topping even Hugo Chavez.
By a vote of 41-26, Argentina's Senate passed a law to nationalize all
newsprint, of course in "the national interest."
In Argentina, a nation that still avidly reads newspapers and magazines,
that's a lot of power. It effectively hands the government a monopoly on
newsprint — since only one newsprint plant, Papel Prensa, remains.
By coincidence, it's owned by La Nacion and Clarin, two media groups
Fernandez has pursued for years.
The Newsprint Bill represents "progress toward a free press," the
government oozed.
It "will improve the quality of information and the plurality of
opinions in Argentina," added Vice President Amadou Boudou.
Baloney. It's a blow to free speech that opens the door not just to
self-censorship, which is already rampant in Argentina, but to ever-more
fascistic state manipulation of the country's communities, businesses and
industries, and violations of personal and property rights.
It's part of a long slide for the increasingly socialist nation. In a
report last May, the Inter-American Press Association denounced the
"constant harassment and intimidation of independent and critical
journalists" in an attempt to "create self-censorship or simply
attack them to destroy their credibility."
There are precedents for this.
In 1973, Chile's Marxist President Salvador Allende — a Fernandez hero —
tried to seize newsprint, too, triggering a popular rebellion that led to his
downfall. But to Fernandez, and the U.S. left, Allende remains a saint. That's
why Fernandez feels free to copy him.
Sadly, this is happening because no one stands up for democracy in a region
that still claims to be democratic. The Organization of American States is a
nonentity, and the U.S. under the Obama administration still considers
Argentina a major non-NATO ally.
Fernandez, in power for just two weeks, uses her large electoral victory as
justifying her action.
But in reality, Argentina's opposition has been decimated and a one-party
state remains. With no one left to fight, Fernandez is going after the press —
in a way Allende and Hugo Chavez could only dream of.
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