Libertad de prensa.

Libertad de Prensa en el Mundo
Freedom House

(Hat tip: Perfil)

Argentina aparece como Parcialmente Libre.
(Que es lo mismo que parcialmente esclavo, ¿no?)

De 195 países evaluados, 63 son no libres, 58 (incluida Argentina) son parcialmente libres, y 74 son libres.

Argentina, con una calificación de 49, ocupa el lugar 105 entre los 195 países.
En el continente americano, se ubica en el lugar 28 de 35 países.

Este es el informe:

Argentina
Status: Partly Free
Legal Environment: 13
Political Environment: 20
Economic Environment: 16
Total Score: 49

Local and national politicians followed President Néstor Kirchner’s lead in 2006, showing little tolerance for press criticism. Tactics used against critical media included control of government advertising and access to information; termination of programs on private and state-owned broadcasters; and use of authoritarian press laws, threats, and physical assault to intimidate journalists.

While criminal insult and defamation laws no longer exist in Argentina, “crimes against honor” prohibit intentionally accusing someone of committing a crime, as well as impugning their honor. Civil laws call for the accuser to pay fines for any material or “moral” damages caused, while criminal laws carry jail time of up to three years. Both laws were used against journalists in 2006. Investigative reporter Mariano Saravia received a grant from the World Press Freedom Committee to fight charges of civil crimes against honor filed by a retired military officer and a former policeman who appeared in his book, La Sombra Azul. The journalist’s defense is that what he wrote was true. Prior to the charges, Saravia received death threats and was harassed. Although not used against Saravia, crimes against honor also exist in the federal Penal Code to which truth is a defense if the accusation is made in the public interest. The minister of culture in Rio Negro province filed criminal charges against journalist Angel Ruiz in 2006 after his reports linked the official to fossil smuggling. Prior to the charges, the journalist received threatening calls. Other criminal laws were used against journalists during the year. In Córdoba province, radio journalists Néstor Pasquini and Hugo Francischelli were jailed in December on charges of inciting violence and arson during a riot they covered.

The press also faced various forms of political pressure. President Kirchner continued to criticize conservative journalists and publications for complicity with the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. These publications, especially the daily La Nación, provide the most critical coverage of his government. First Lady and Senator Cristina Fernández called journalists covering congress “ignoramuses” and “dimwits.” These comments seemed to have incited attacks on journalists, including threats made against La Nación columnist Joaquín Morales Solá and the publisher of the critical newsmagazine Noticias, Jorge Fontevecchia. On state-owned Channel 7 television, “irreverent” journalist Victor Hugo Morales’s program, Desayuno, was cancelled after a seven-year run. The order came after the station management’s replacement and unexplained dismissal of anchor Marcela Pacheca after she criticized a gathering that President Kirchner organized on the anniversary of his inauguration. Similarly, Radio Nacional discontinued José Eliaschev’s commentary program. Three current affairs programs on privately owned media suffered the same fate.

Reporters Sans Frontieres reported that 34 Argentine journalists were physically attacked in 2006, often by politicians, bureaucrats or police. In the Quilmes town hall in Buenos Aires province, a local leader of the Peronist Party beat radio journalist Pedro Navarro unconscious. The mayor of Quilmes convinced the Federal Broadcast Commission to revoke the licenses of two local radio stations, Navarro’s Radio Quilmes 106.9 and Fan 103.9. The lower house of Congress unsuccessfully called upon the commission to restore their licenses. Furthermore, three well-known journalists’ email accounts were hacked, giving perpetrators access to names of confidential sources.

The use of state advertising to reward or punish media outlets is considered the biggest threat to press freedom nationally. According to the U.S. State Department, national government spending on advertising increased from approximately $5 million (15.4 million pesos) in 2002 to approximately $47 million (127.5 million pesos) in 2006. Shows were cancelled on privately owned Radio Río Gallegos in Santa Cruz province, LT 24 radio in Buenos Aires province and on TV 5 in Tucuman after local authorities threatened to withdraw advertising. In May, Grupo Editorial Perfil sued the national government for discrimination after withholding official advertising from some of its publications. Legislation that would set market-based or program-oriented criteria for the distribution of state advertising was stalled in congressional committees. The media company Perfil, owner of Noticias, has sued over the government’s refusal to award state advertising or grant its reporters interviews with top officials. All print media in Argentina are privately owned. The internet was unrestricted by the government and utilized by 34 percent of the population.