BUENOS AIRES, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Argentina has begun measures to discipline influential media outlets that have been critical of the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
More than 200 government tax officials raided the headquarters of the influential Clarin newspaper in what a tax agency spokesperson called a routine operation. But a Clarin group source announced the raid was "harassment" and stemmed from an ongoing feud between Argentine media's outspoken voices and the Fernandez government.
Clarin's Spanish-language Web site reported details of the raid on Thursday and named the president as being responsible for the operation. The Clarin group has a wide range of media interests, including radio and television, Internet access and other telecommunications networks.
The tax agency officers searched the Buenos Aires building housing the Clarin offices and removed large numbers of files and documents, in an operation similar to recent raids on other Argentine corporations and groups, including those outside the media. Homes of some of the Clarin executives were also raided and searched, Argentine media reported.
The feud between Argentina's media and the government is heating up as Fernandez pushes for reforms in a law dating back to the time of 1980s military dictatorship. However, critics of the president say her reforms are a step backward and will not help the cause of democracy.
A media reform bill that is currently before Congress has been roundly condemned because journalists and media owners see it as an attempt to fragment influential organizations that have been critical of the government. Fernandez has accused the media of biased reporting.
The so-called tax raid was widely condemned in the media and by opposition politicians. Critics said that the raid, instead of strengthening the government's case for reform, highlighted the media's concern the new bill was aimed to weaken rather than reinforce the media industry. Critics say the new law will dilute the role of corporations that have more than one outlet and are therefore seen as a threat to Fernandez.
"There are no more doubts about what the bill's real aims are. It's meant to damage an economic group and not to help citizens," Deputy Julian Obiglio, head of the centre-left PRO party in the lower house, said in a statement cited by MercoPress.
Analysts said Argentina's media appeared headed for the kind of government treatment that has seen large corporations forced to split or sell off units and thereby lose influential control in various sectors of the economy, including oil.
Much of the government ire against the media stems from recent coverage of events affecting Fernandez and her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner. A farmers' strike earlier this year was the catalyst for major election losses for Fernandez in June. The election setback forced Kirchner to relinquish leadership of the ruling party.
But he has been strident in his attacks on the media, especially Clarin, which increased its criticism of the government after the farmers' strike debacle and election losses for Cristina Fernandez.
