Rumours gov’t plans to take over Papel Prensa trigger outcry

Media bill heads for crucial vote

by Jorge San Pedro
Herald staff

On the eve of the Senate’s crucial vote today on the government-sponsored media reform bill, that will drastically change the industry if approved as it stands, rumours about the administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s plan to take over Papel Prensa, a paper mill company that supplies newsprint to about 170 papers nationwide, triggered a chorus of warnings about the Kirchnerites goal of “controlling all the media.”

Ruling party legislators yesterday expressed confidence they already have the necessary votes to pass the bill, while the opposition cried foul, stressing that former president Néstor Kirchner and the government are still exerting undue pressure to win back the support of lawmakers who had said they would oppose the controversial media reform.

Senator Gerardo Morales, who is also chairman of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), yesterday remarked that today’s Upper House session, that is expected to last until the wee hours of Saturday, “would get complicated because of the pressure exerted by the government.”The Radical senator pointed out that Río Negro Governor Miguel Saiz was being targeted by the Kirchnerites, who want him to persuade Radical Senator Pablo Verani - an ally of Vice-President Julio Cobos - to change his mind and vote the media bill favourably. Morales added that the government was withholding funds it should have transferred to the province to reinforce its point.

Yesterday evening, Verani flatly rejected the prospect of jumping ship to support the government's proposal.

The rumours came on the wake of senators Dora Sánchez (Dissident Radical-Corrientes) and Carlos Salazar (Republican Force-Tucumán) announcement on Wednesday that they will join the ruling FPV Victory Front, after stressing in several occasions before they were going to vote against the bill.

Sánchez, who is also an ally of Cobos, yesterday said outgoing Corrientes Governor Arturo Colombi asked her to change her vote. She added that her desire is to get "the best for my province."

The outgoing governor was clearly defeated on Sunday by his cousin Ricardo Colombi - backed by the Radical Party - in the runoff of the gubernatorial election. Cobos supported Arturo Colombi in the first round but distanced himself before the crucial second round on Sunday.

"Arturo Colombi is leaving office on December 10 and he was in Government House. What could he be negotiating? Impunity," stressed Morales, because he seeks protection against judges who may probe charges of embezzlement during his tenure.

Also Cobos expressed yesterday his "concern" about the lawmakers that have changed their minds, Radical Senator-elect Nito Artaza told reporters. Artaza met the Vice-President at his Senate office.

"Beware of the senators whose mandate ends on December 10," because they may prove to be the most "easily influenced," added Morales. Both Sánchez and Salazar belong to the group of legislators who will not be in Congress next year.

Morales, however, carefully chose his words to analyze the case of Salazar, who announced he will support the government to pass the bill in the first reading but will insist to introduce changes in second reading. The opposition knows the ruling party has the necessary votes to approve the bill in first reading and has based its strategy on the attempt to win the support of enough senators to have some of the bill's key articles amended.
Yesterday, Salazar complained in a radio interview that the press "is saying that I've changed my mind, but I've never made public any position." Opposition lawmakers greeted his statement with disbelief.

Salazar, of the rightwing Republican Force (Tucumán), belongs to the cross-party federal caucus that comprises dissident Peronists and provincial parties.

On October 2, Salazar's signature appeared in a written statement issued by the bloc, decrying the government's bill because it "allows for prior censorship and affects property rights." Senators Carlos Reutemann, Juan Carlos Romero, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Hilda "Chiche" Duhalde and Sonia Escudero, among others, also signed the communiqué.

Yesterday evening the dissident Peronists, Rodríguez Saá, Romero and Reutemann, joined by Senator-elect Ramón Puerta and Deputy-elect Felipe Solá - both dissident Peronists - confirmed that the cross-party federal caucus will not support the media reform bill and will join other opposition parties to amend it in second reading.

"A consensus among the entire political spectrum should have been achieved" to pass a new broadcasting law, Reutemann said.

At a meeting yesterday of the Argentine Productive Movement held in Córdoba province (see story on this page) former caretaker president Eduardo Duhalde, also a dissident Peronist, equated the case of Sánchez and Salazar with the scandal that surrounded the passing in the Senate of a labour deregulation law in 2000 during the government of former president Fernando de la Rúa, who allegedly authorized the bribing of Peronist senators to secure its approval.

"The damage done to the institutions by the current government has no precedent in our democratic system," Duhalde said.

PAPEL PRENSA NEXT? Grupo Clarín Institutional Relations Director Jorge Rendo yesterday said that the government has "a battle plan" to "take control of Papel Prensa," a company created in 1978 to produce in the country newsprint that currently supplies about 170 papers nationwide.

The newspapers Clarín and La Nación are the company's majority stakeholders and the state has a 27 percent share. Rendo, who is also the vice-president of Papel Prensa, remarked that "we are absolutely convinced that the national government has the goal of controlling all the media."

Clarín and La Nación yesterday run front page stories reporting that Carlos Collasso, a state representative in Papel Prensa, revealed that at a meeting held on September 14 Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno put forward a plan to take over the company.

According to Collasso, Moreno announced that "based on shortage of supplies of newsprint, the state will send a trustee to Papel Prensa through an emergency decree that is in the making," adding that the goal "is to find a way to make the company's stock plunge" to allow the state to buy it cheaply or to directly "expropriate" Papel Prensa.

Clarín yesterday quoted Moreno as telling the executive "my boys are experts in breaking spines and making eyes pop out" of whistle-blowers.
Civic Coalition National Deputy Patricia Bullrich yesterday portrayed Moreno's words as "a Mafia extortion" and demanded the resignation of the domestic trade secretary.
- With news agencies