LA NACION TO AMBASSADOR WAYNE: MORE MEDIA PRESSURE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 000791 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2058 TAGS: KMDR KPAO OPRC PGOV PHUM PREL AR SUBJECT: LA NACION TO AMBASSADOR WAYNE: MORE MEDIA PRESSURE ANTICIPATED IN ARGENTINA REF: A. BUENOS AIRES 663 ¶B. BUENOS AIRES 587 ¶C. BUENOS AIRES 531 Classified By: Ambassador E. Anthony Wayne for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Julio and Fernan Saguier, owner-editors of La Nacion, the most influential paper among Argentina's business and educated elite, met with Ambassador Wayne to express concerns that media pressure from the GOA is bad and growing worse. They argued that that former president Nestor Kirchner is behind this campaign as he usurps his wife's presidential power and tries to weaken perceived "enemies" during the current crisis. The Saguiers gave specific examples of the intimidation they had felt, in the form of threatened legislative changes, strikes, direct references against them in GOA-supported press, unexplained loss of private sector advertising, and electronic and other crimes against employees. Fernan Saguier asked the paper's top editorialist, Joaquin Morales Sola, to follow up with the Press Officer to reemphasize their concerns. This follows upon a separate but similar approach from editors at the left of center daily Critica (ref A). End Summary. -------------- GOA STRATEGY: USE MEDIA AS PRIMARY SCAPEGOAT -------------- ¶2. (C) Ambassador Wayne had an informal conversation May 28 with the owner and chief editor of La Nacion, Argentina's daily-of-record with 150,000 circulation among a predominantly elite readership. The CEO is Julio Saguier and his brother, Fernan, is the chief editor. The meeting was at the newspaper and at their request. Their purpose was to explain to the Ambassador that they are feeling pressure from the GoA. They said they fear that the GoA is looking for enemies on which to put the blame for all its problems. One of those will likely be the media. Another could be the USG. Julio said he had heard from colleagues at Clarin that the GoA has only temporarily reduced the intensity of its campaign with that paper. They argued that the Kirchners intend to settle its score with the media by identifying it as its primary scapegoat once it gets past its difficulties with the rural sector. Julio said the management of La Nacion is very worried about this and takes the threat seriously. ¶3. (C) La Nacion adopted a posture of "solidarity" with their competitor, Clarin, and noted friendly contact regarding these issues at board meetings for "Papel Prensa," the jointly owned paper plant (of which the GoA also owns a stake) which supplies both papers. Anecdotally, they had heard from Clarin colleagues that an extremely upset GoA had most recently been harassing Clarin for publishing a photo of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) with Hugo Chavez at the Lima Summit, in which the president's legs appear bulky. They commented, as others have, that Nestor Kirchner is usurping his wife's authority, reflected in press coverage that dedicates notably less space and photos to the President and more to Nestor on his Peronist Party role. -------------- GOA INTIMIDATION: APPLY PRESSURE DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY -------------- ¶4. (C) The Saguiers presented examples of pressure that included legislative changes which could adversely affect business conditions for the print press, strike threats by a pro-GOA unionist, articles that target La Nacion in GOA-supported press, the loss of private sector advertising support, and electronic and other crime against individuals at the paper. ¶5. (C) The Kirchners' control of Congress allows them to threaten legislative changes as a tool of intimidation. Julio Saguier was very concerned about a proposed change in the law governing newspaper distribution. The new law would restrict distribution to newsstands, reversing reforms from eight years ago. A bill is reportedly under consideration in Congress and if passed, asserted Julio, would significantly hurt media business. Regarding Broadcast Law reform, reported Ref B, Julio said he had met with three Peronist legislators (he named Peronist Senator Piccheto) who confirmed conflicts in the Peronist leadership over this issue. Julio said he had their commitment to fight the draft they had presumably received from the GoA. ¶6. (C) Julio was concerned that labor confederation (CGT) and teamsters union leader Hugo Moyano was going to block newspaper delivery May 30-31 by using pickets to cut off the single road from the plant out of which comes the paper for both La Nacion and Clarin. The trucks would not be able to make delivery for that day. Joaquin Morales Sola later underlined to the Press Officer that any actions threatened by Moyano should be assumed to come directly from Nestor Kirchner. (In fact, paper delivery has continued, with no interruptions.) ¶7. (C) Investigative reporting by La Nacion had days before implicated Jaime Stiuso, General Director of Operations at the GOA intelligency agency (SIDE),in the Antonini-Wilson case. The Saguiers consider Stiuso a noxious figure who uses information, presumably for the GoA, against Argentines for various purposes. They explained that La Nacion published records that showed Stiuso had been in telephone contact with ex-GoA official Claudio Uberti shortly following the discovery of $800,000 at a Buenos Aires airport in a suitcase being carried by Antonini-Wilson. The articl tracks numerous phone calls made by Uberti to the presidential residence in the suburb of Olivos and others in the immediate aftermath of the seizure of Antonini-Wilson's suitcase with $800,000 by Customs officials at the airport. Stiuso allegedly made three calls to Uberti three days after that discovery. The Saguiers wanted the Ambassador to see a subsequent article in the pro-GoA daily BAE about another case involving Stiuso, in which Nestor Kirchner's former Minister of Justice Beliz is being tried for having revealed Stiuso's identity on television. The article writes that La Nacion is a possible supporter in the defense of Beliz. The Saguiers took this as a subtle warning. ¶8. (C) Oil company YPF has suspended a large amount of advertising it was placing in La Nacion, the Saguiers said, without explanation. A call to the new Argentine investor/partner, Enrique Eskenazy, produced only an expression of surprise and a plea of ignorance, which they did not believe. The Saguiers suggested this was in response to La Nacion reporting on Eskenazy,s purchase of some of Spanish company Repsol's controlling stake in YPF. La Nacion and other press have described this purchase as a major step in the government's "Argentinization" campaign against foreign ownership, specifically aimed at the major privatizations of the 90's. The Saguiers suspect the advertising was pulled because the government was and Eskenazy were not pleased with La Nacion criticism of the purchase. ¶9. (C) Julio said they were certain that the paper's phones and computers were being tapped and hacked. Fernan himself had been the subject of a "virtual kidnapping" the week before. While he was having coffee with someone, his wife received a call that he had been kidnapped. The callers had accurate details of the car he was using at the time. His wife could not reach him because his cell phone was off. The whole event lasted a couple of hours. While the police told him that it was likely a criminal effort, he had serious doubts. Another crime committed against staff was the break-in at Mariano Obarrio's home (La Nacion's Casa Rosada reporter),about a year ago, the very day he had a sizeable sum of cash he was using to buy a new apartment. The burglars had some kind of prior knowledge, they believe, based on evidence of phone tapping, and appeared to have been able to enter with keys. (Obarrio subsequently told press attache that he had filed a criminal complaint with the court, and La Nacion attorneys were pushing prosecutors to investigate.) Also discussed was the well-publicized break-in that week at the home of popular radio journalist Chiche Gelblung. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶10. (C) La Nacion has had a long, conflictive relationship with the Kirchners, dating back to Nestor Kirchner's early days as president. Kirchner's public attacks against then-chief editor Claudio Escribano eventually resulted in his retirement. The paper and several of its journalists, including Joaquin Morales Sola, were the targets of public verbal attacks from both of the Kirchners. Nevertheless, Morales Sola has enjoyed privileged access to the Kirchners at the Casa Rosada. That access has been more limited recently. Through these ups and downs, La Nacion firmly stood its ground, withstood the pressure and freely published what its journalists wrote -- as it continues to do today. What distinguishes these complaints is that for the first time La Nacion has reached out to the Ambassador and the Embassy with this depth of concern. The conversation follows Chief Editor Jorge Lanata's talk with the Ambassador (ref A) about troubles at his new paper, Critica, and the recent outbreak of the government's fight against Clarin (ref B). The Saguiers' friendly words about Clarin suggest that Argentina's two top newspapers are circling the wagons in an atmosphere of shared expectations that the government will redouble efforts against the independent media. ¶11. (C) La Nacion, Clarin, Critica and other media outlets continue to investigate, report, and criticize government actions and policies. The GOA reprisals they allege are underhanded and difficult to prove. It would not be surprising that this administration would pick low-grade harassment tactics to go after its critics rather than the heavy-handed restrictions on press freedom (official censorship, closing of media outlets, incarceration of journalists, etc.) that would elicit domestic and international opprobrium. Although easy to detect and condemn when a government openly cracks down on press freedom, the types of "anonymous" harassment described above, if left unchecked and escalated, could result in the equally deleterious self-censorship. WAYNE