Argentina's Federal Police agents (PFA) barricade the entrance to TĂ©lam news agency's headquarters with a security fence. Photo: AdriĂĄn EscĂĄndar via Infobae.
The news agency workers received a letter informing them they were “excused” from their duties for seven days.
After announcing the closure of the press agency TĂ©lam early this Monday, March 4, the Argentinian government of President Javier Milei proceeded to suspend TĂ©lam’s website while the building from where the newsroom operates was fenced off.
Meanwhile, all workers were “excused” from their duties for seven days and could not enter the building to carry out their journalistic work.
TĂ©lam’s public website was taken down in the late hours of Sunday. Upon entering the site, an Argentine national coat of arms and the statement “Page under reconstruction” is shown.
Se realiza un abrazo en defensa de TELAM ante el intento de cierre que encabeza el gobierno nacional. MĂĄs de 700 trabajadores, con cobertura en todo el paĂs y mediante todas las plataformas, forman parte de la agencia de noticias. Cuentan con el apoyo de diversos sectores. pic.twitter.com/EJSpVarrHH
— Santi Corei (@santi_corei) March 4, 2024
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TĂ©lam workers had called for a “hug” to the agency building after Milei announced the closure of TĂ©lam on Friday night, a protest that was going to take place this Monday at 12:30 local time. However, at midnight, police officers anticipated the protest and fenced off the building, preventing workers from entering.
In a response statement, the assembly of the agency’s workers said there was an “Attack on freedom of expression. They destroy a public media outlet, TĂ©lam, in the middle of the night. The national government is carrying out one of the worst attacks on freedom of expression in the last 40 years of democracy.”
The workers stated, “tonight, the city police fenced off the two National News and Advertising Agency TĂ©lam buildings to avoid massive protests and prevent press workers from accessing the building.”
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On Friday, Milei announced before the Legislative Assembly that his administration “is going to close” the public news agency TĂ©lam. He argued that the agency “has been used in recent decades as a Kirchnerist propaganda agency.” However, he did not provide any evidence in this regard.
TeleSUR’s collaborating journalist, VĂctor Hugo Morales, stated in conversation with fellow journalist Cinthia GarcĂa that “the TĂ©lam workers are going through a hard situation while the Argentinian government begins to fulfill Javier Milei’s promise to close a key agency for communication and information throughout the country with a federal and plural character.”
Morales conveyed his “solidarity with the workers and our total repudiation of the government’s censorship and authoritarianism.”
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SF
