By Maira Magro
In another chapter of the ongoing disputes between the Argentine government and the country's two main newspapers, Clarín e La Nación, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner presented on Friday, Aug. 27, a bill that would make the production, distribution and commercialization of newsprint a "public good," reported the official news agency Télam.
The measure would affect the largest producer of newsprint in Argentina, Papel Prensa, that is a corporation owned by the Argentine government and the two newspapers.
According to the government, the intent of the bill is to bring equality to the press and guarantee freedom of expression. The Minister of the Interior, Florencio Randazzo, accused Clarín and La Nación of benefiting unfairly from Papel Prensa: “other newspapers may between 30 and 40 percent more than those that are part of Papel Prensa,” he said, as quoted in Télam.
Opposition government members and the two newspapers accuse the government of wanting to create a "monopoly of public information," Clarín noted.
According to the newspaper, the bill has five articles and a 39-page message from the president in which she accuses Clarín and La Nación of illegally appropriating the newsprint company during the dictatorship.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
