The United States government expressed concern about the press situation in Argentina during a conference about freedom of expression in the world on Wednesday, April 18, reported the newspaper La Razón.
On Monday, April 16, in Candelaria, Misiones in Argentina, the city council president punched a journalist who was trying to cover a city council session and was denied access to it three times.
The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish) is calling for punishment for those responsible for a series of attacks on journalists by public officials in different provinces of Argentina during the last weeks of March and early April.
The Argentine newspaper La Capital, based in the city of Rosario, said that one of its journalists received anonymous threats, apparently related to the journalist's investigations into the drug trafficking of ephedrine.
On Wednesday, March 7, a group of pro-government Argentine newspapers launched the Federal Association of Publishers of Argentina (AFERA in Spanish) as an alternative to the group Association of Newspaper Entities in Argentina (ADEPA in Spanish), reported the newspaper Perfil.
An Argentine federal court convicted the newspaper Clarín for publishing an article that supposedly discriminates against women, reported the newspaper La Capital. Published on April, 5, 2009, the article, titled “The child factory: They conceive in numbers and obtain higher benefits from the state," was deemed "offensive" as it "inclined toward discrimination and psychological, sexual, and symbolic violence against women," reported the news agency UPI.
Two Argentine journalists were threatened at gunpoint on Monday, Feb. 13, in La Plata, in the province of Buenos Aires, reported the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish).
While trying to cover anti-mining protests in the province of Catamarca in Argentina, journalists were denied access to the area, showing a deterioration in freedom of expression, said the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish). FOPEA also said that several protesters and journalists were detained and harassed.
An Argentine photojournalist received text messages threatening his life after he did not photograph a musical group performing at a Carnival celebration in Corrientes, Argentina, reported CorrientesHoy.
The Argentine newspaper La Nación is negotiating the takeover of the U.S. media company ImpreMedia, which owns seven Spanish language newspapers, including La Opinión in Los Angeles and New York's El Diario/La Prensa, the oldest Spanish-language daily in the United States, reported the New York Post. La Nación, based in Buenos Aires, is Argentina's second-largest daily.