By Maira Magro
The media companies with good relationships with the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernández received during the first months of 2010 as much as 780 times more revenue from official ads than those media considered enemies of the administration, reported Clarín. The calculation evaluated the amount each media company received multiplied by the amount of people the ad reached, explained O Globo.
According to Clarín, the media group owned by Sergio Szpolsky, which includes the newspapers El Argentino, Tiempo Argentino and BAE, benefited the most. But Clarín, considered an "enemy" of the government, received 60 perecent less in revenues coming from official advertising during the first six months of the year, in comparison with 2008. The newspaper La Nación -- another of the leading newspapers in the country that also is in conflict with the Fernández administration -- saw a 50 percent drop.
The non-governmental organizations Poder Ciudadano (Citizen Power) and ADC have been insisting on the need for transparency in the way official advertising is distributed in Argentina. Also, opposition parties have been crafting a bill that would do away with the government's ability to reward media favorable to the government with official advertising, reported La Nación.
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.
