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Sunday 27th March was the first time in 65 years that the national daily newspaper, Clarín, did not distribute its Sunday issue. Olé, a sports publication that belongs to Clarín, was also unable to print.

Around midnight the night before, former graphic arts employees and teamsters blocked access to the papers’ headquarters for 12 hours—preventing the release of the print edition. The demonstrators were demanding their jobs back, camping out in front of papers’ offices with their families. La Nacíon, another major daily, was blocked for four hours, but was still able to release its Sunday edition.

This is the fifth protest at the main Clarín offices since November 2010. The source of the conflict is an ongoing dispute between Clarín management and Clarín Graphic Arts Rioplatenses (AGR), a sub company which prints brochures and private inserts for the newspaper. Over 100 AGR employees have been dismissed from the Clarín group since 2000.

Argentina’s official news agency, Telam, distributed a union press release that said the measures are in response to ‘unions’ persecution by the Clarín group’, and promised industrial actions will continue.

The Argentine courts have issued two rulings against the obstruction of paper distribution. However, they have also issued five orders for the paper to reinstate the laid-off personnel - the media company has yet to comply.

Since the conflict was caused by Clarín layoffs, it is unclear exactly why the demonstration was extended to La Nacíon, and why that protest was so much shorter.

The newspapers have claimed that this protest is less about labour disputes than it is an attempt to silence negative press about Hugo Moyano, the leader of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT). Clarín’s Sunday issue was expected to publish an article on Moyano and his son’s alleged money laundering.

Moyano has been the Secretary General of the CGT since 2004; previously he headed the Trucker’s Union (MTA), now controlled by his son, Pablo Moyano.

Early last month, Argentine newspapers reported that the Swiss Justice Ministry had requested information on Moyano and his son, as part of an investigation into money laundering. The Swiss government later clarified that its examination on money laundering from Argentina does not include Moyano, his son or his union.

Moyano rejected having any involvement with the protest. He called accusations against him for blocking the paper “absurd”. In a conversation with radio Brisas he said, “There are only staff with their families and children - they are the employees laid-off by Clarín. Those blocking are the unemployed with their children and relatives, with their mothers, because these are desperate people.”

Union Support

The truck driver’s union threatened a massive national strike on Monday 21st March in support of Moyano’s innocence. The CGT leader ultimately called off the demonstration, saying the labour union was better than the media and opposition sectors, who he accused of using the Swiss investigation to hurt the labourers.

“The workers want to come to power and that upsets many people,” he said. Had the protest happened, it would have paralyzed most transportation services in the country. At the time, the opposition Radical Party (UCR) blamed Moyano for the attempted demonstration and accused him of “using the right to strike for personal issues”.

Union representative, Eduardo Altamirano, threatened in a press conference they would also block media that published news against the CGT or its leader. He said, “This measure is applied to repudiate the attacks and lies that newspapers publish, directly or indirectly, about Hugo Moyano and the workers he represents.”

However, AGR representative Luis Siri, denied in an assembly that the union action was designed to censor the press.

“The goal was not to stop Clarín from distributing, nor to impede it from expressing its ideas, regardless of whether we disagree with them. The objective was to send a message to the directors so that Clarín stops squeezing its employees,” he said.

This week, the Clarín-owned news channel Telenoche (TN) aired a video of what appears to be Siri threatening to shut down print distribution if the media company did not pay him a total of nine million pesos. In the video he comments on having friends in high places and says that this was a political issue, not a labour one.

Siri told Perfíl that the conversation was edited out of context and the money was compensation for what Clarín owes AGR. He said, “When I get called to testify, I’ll ask for the whole video and it’ll be shown there.”

Freedom of Speech

The newspapers involved have called the blockade an attack on the constitutional right to press freedom—to protest being silenced, Clarín printed a blank front-page on the Monday after the strike.

Reporters without Borders is a non-profit organisation that has been fighting for press freedom since it began in 1985. Benoît Hervieu is responsible for the Americas Desk for Reporters without Borders in Paris.

“The block cannot be directly blamed on [President] Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for impeding the publication,” Hervieu said, “but if the authorities don’t comply with an order that implements the constitutional right - which is free press, information and expression - that is serious.”

Federal Police stood by during the AGR strike that blocked the newspapers, but did not interfere—despite laws against obstructing distribution of the press. Critics speculate foul play by the Fernández government, which has close ties to Moyano and his union, and a rocky relationship with the major dailies.

Problems between the Clarín group and the current administration have been brewing since the ‘campo crisis’ in 2008. There is a legal battle concerning the adopted children of Clarín owner, Ernestina Herrera de Noble. The government wants them to provide blood samples to see if they were stolen from desaparecidos during the dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s - a known practice among those who were close to the junta.

There is also the dispute over the Law on Audiovisual Communication Services (SCA) that limits media monopolies, and will affect Clarín the most.

Reporters without Borders has a slightly difficult relationship with the Clarín group right now because, although they condemn the protest, they support the SCA on behalf of the decentralization of the media, and on behalf of more diversity in the media. “It is true that in Argentina, Clarín has almost everything,” Hervieu said.

Every year, Reporters without Borders publishes a Press Freedom Index. Hervieu compared Argentina’s situation to France and Italy’s. He said, “The actors in this story - politicians, unions, also media representatives - should not fall into the ideology trap and extreme points-of-view over this situation. Saying that freedom of press is in grave danger in Argentina - that is just not the case.”

To find out what the public think about Moyano and the press blocks, click here.