Macri is Afraid of Telesur

The announcement that the government of Macri would expel the Latin American television project Telesur is another sign that, quickly, the shadow of media dictatorship hangs over Argentina

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has ordered the departure of the multinational Telesur and its Executive Board from his TV spectrum, in an action against the plurality of the press in a country that is dominated by mass media in highlighting the group Clarín, its main support in the retrogressive changes of his Right-wing government.

Macri cannot deny that he fears the impact of the information spaces of Telesur, whose work focuses on the theme “Our North is the South”, a hemisphere which the leader of the rightist coalition ‘Cambiemos’ has little interest in looking at, while boasting its links with the northern United States and the proposal to become the leader of the conservatives in Latin America.

Known as the information indicator of Latin America, the multinational chain was opened in Caracas, where is headquartered centrally, by President Hugo Chavez on July 1, 2005, with an area of ​​transmission for America (North and South), Europe, North Africa, Syria. It has also made alliances with other television broadcasters whose aim is the transmission of the truth of the facts, usually manipulated by the oligarchs of information.

The shareholders of the platform, which millions of people use to seek the true face of the facts follow, without partiality, are Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Since its inception, Telesur had financing from Argentina, while the progressive governments of Cristina Fernandez lasted. However, last month, Macri, announced it would stop funding the chain and cable operators would have the power to remove or not the signal from their grid. Also, the channel was removed from the schedule of the Open Digital Television of Argentina, which is free and the only medium of free information in Argentina.

Political analyst Martin Granovsky said in the newspaper Página12 that on some issues Telesur was not only the only medium of television news, but the only medium of information. Thus, he reiterated, recalling its brilliant role during the coup against President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya, the reporters of that station worked in the field and had more precision about what happened than the diplomats of the subcontinent, said the commentator.

Other intellectuals like journalist and writer Stella Calloni, the Nobel Peace Prize Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the organization of Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and other figures and organizations rejected the measure because the country is at the mercy of the powerful media-and as seen in the last elections of 2015 will make war on what smacks of democracy.

For Argentines, closing Telesur will be a hard blow to information democracy, as they are now at the mercy of the media twisters, mostly belonging to Grupo Clarin, one of the supporters of the military dictatorship, and one of the most powerful monopolies of Latin America.

Clarin and Cristina Fernández

One of the first decrees issued by Macri was the dismantling of the Media Law passed by the government of Cristina Fernandez to demonopolize the press and pluralize national voices, but met with resistance from Clarin, who never obeyed. Immediately, the company sought the support of the discredited Inter American Press Association (IAPA).

The IAPA defended Clarin and joined the troupe of the opponents of the Social Services Communication Act – including businessmen, media of different forms and judicial means to suppress the democratizing breath of Argentina.

Clarin owns more than 240 cable companies spread across Argentina, more than 10 times what the media law allows, now modified by Macri for his political and journalistic partner.

It also provides Radio services to 42% of the population, open TV to 39% and subscription television to 59%

Nothing was convenient for him in the Media Law, which now allows any number of properties for an operator – that in no case allowed a single company to exceed 35% of the national population.

Silencing Voices 

The influential journalist Victor Hugo Morales, one of the most critical voices heard against the new administration- was fired from Radio Continental in January for telling the truths of events in Argentina and being a faithful follower of the policies of Nestor Kirtchner and Cristina Fernández.

Morales, who said he suffered a “political dismissal” was suspended when he would start his morning show on the air and announced what was happening amid a display of Macri followers who wanted to set a trap.

In the election period, this analyst of international fame, said Cristina Fernandez was facing the most powerful man in the country, the manager of Grupo Clarin, Hector Magnetto, a personal friend of the new president who took office last December 10 and is already disowned faced by a high percentage of the population, with more than 100,000 layoffs on his agenda, raising electricity tariffs, releasing the dollar, the suspension of Telesur and payment to vulture funds.

The strategy of Clarin, a conglomerate of radio, television, print and Internet was to eliminate the candidate of the ruling Front for Victory, Daniel Scioli, discrediting Fernandez and serving up the presidency on a silver platter to the neoliberal postulate, millionaire Macri. This, as it happened, was going to drown the Media Law.

Another journalistic censorship in the style of the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s – happened a few days ago in the television channel C5N, which did not transmit the Political Economy program, hosted by journalist Roberto Navarro, suspended until further notice, which may never come.

Navarro explained later that he tried to “expose the links of the president with businessman and personal friend Nicholas Caputo,” published Prensa Latina, which would have been a scandal a little inconvenient for Cambiemos. The program was entitled “The president and his partner.”

Through the social network Facebook, the journalist said that “The harassment C5N is suffering is clear. “I regret that my country cannot report on the activities of the President of the Nation and his partner,” said Navarro, who added in his criticism: “As Pope Francis said, when Macri assumed the government we live in a climate of revanchism not seen since 1955.”

Before the suspension of the program, many people gathered outside the studios of the channel in the area of ​​Palermo in Buenos Aires, to reject censorship, something very serious in a supposed democracy, said the former Minister of Economy and current deputy of the FpV Axel Kicillof, cited by Página 12.

The mobilization against censorship is almost permanent.

The group of priests in Option for the Poor warned last week about the risks of “refloating some or many of the past policies” in Argentina, like those of the dictatorship 40 years ago and urged to “contribute further in putting foundations in the search for memory, truth and justice. ”

In a statement, the group referred to the coup in Argentina of March 24, 1976, which blamed the “entrepreneurial, ecclesiastical, journalistic and military complicity”

Another voice that challenged the decision was ALBA movements, which treated the subject as “a clear violation of freedom of expression, because it will deprive the Argentine of receiving alternative information to that the mainstream media in this country promotes and disseminates, fully aligned with the anti- popular and neoliberalism of the Alianza Cambiemos government.

It also left on the street dozens of critical journalists, censored radio and television programs which disagreed with the politics and ideology of the government and insists on the persecution of non-cognate stations, like C5N And CN23, confirmed the ALBA Movement, which said that “we are entering a period where danger stalks the path started 12 years ago.”

It is in this context that Macri is trying to suppress Telesur from operating.

The suspension of the channel received a harsh response from its president, Colombian journalist Patricia Villegas, who explained to Daniel Tognetti on radio that none of the governmental shareholders dictate what may or may not appear in the contents of the channel; managers are set the broad lines and, as in any medium, the bosses are the ones who decide what material goes out.

The coming days will tell the moment when Telesur will no longer be in Argentina and if the popular protests of journalists and intellectuals do not make the government think better about its anti-democratic step. Also if other private channels, alternative newspapers, websites and university channels will no longer be able to receive the signal.

According to analysts, it is difficult for the so-called information blackout to flourish in Argentina. Perhaps they’ll reconsider and instead of taking a multinational with millions of followers off the air they’ll go on dismounting the alternative apparatus of the press and its leading figures.

On Tuesday 5, for example, academics and journalists called for a rally in support of Telesur and its journalists at 17:00 local time in Argentina outside the headquarters of the multinational in Buenos Aires.

Translated by ESTI