2023-12-14 04:48:00
The Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities (Adepa) celebrated this Wednesday the 61st. anniversary of its creation, within the framework of the closing dinner that the entity organizes year following year. The president of the institution, Martin Etchevershighlighted the role of the “free and independent” press in every democratic society, while at the same time welcomed the new government of Javier Mileifollowing a “prolonged, very intense electoral year.”
The meeting was attended by several leaders and officials, among whom it is worth mentioning the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, the president of the Supreme Court, Horacio Rosatti, the head of the Buenos Aires government Jorge Macri, the Minister of Infrastructure, Guillermo Ferraro , the Minister of Defense, Luis Petri, the Secretary of Media, Belén Stettler and Senator Carolina Losada, among other guests.
“The Argentine press in all its diversity – editorial, federal and size – and Adepa in particular, are strongly identified with two concepts that we Argentines have on the surface these days: democracy and the republic“said Etchevers.
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“Democracy, which is much more than an election, finds in this its instrumental basis of legitimation. We have just experienced an electoral process whose legitimacy and transparency was recognized by everyone“Once once more, it is the expression of one of the few consensuses that we Argentines can credit in these 40 years of democracy,” he continued.
For his part, he greeted all the authorities elected in the last elections: “Much of the country’s political map has seen the growth of alternation, which is one of the central values of healthy and strong democracies.”
“The healthy tension between journalism and power is inherent to the role of the press in democracy. The day it does not exist, then probably someone will not be fulfilling their function well. Journalism, and journalistic companies as organizations that give it sustenance and permanence, have a role in this public debate,” Etchevers remarked.
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Etchevers highlighted the vital role of journalism in fostering a “rational public conversation”
He also added: “The Western, democratic and capitalist world today faces the dilemma of the economic weakening of journalism and sees it as a clear threat to the full validity of liberal democracy.”
“Countries and supranational organizations agree that strengthen the journalism industry with objective and universal frameworksthat do not condition the editorial line of the media, are not subject to discretionary criteria, much less to rewards and punishments, are legitimate and necessary tools to promote the sustainability of a journalistic industry which has seen its sources of income decline at the expense of global technology giants that do not produce content or invest in journalists, but increasingly use their work, without providing them with fair compensation for the benefit they obtain,” he noted.
And he added: “Doing professional journalism is expensive. And trying to do the best journalism is even more expensive. What is at stake is much more than the validity of a private activity, as we are. It is the sustainability of a constitutionally rooted tool constitutive of democracy. The jurisprudence of our Supreme Court has said it: The State cannot ignore the viability of the press“.
In turn, the president of Adepa indicated regarding the official guideline: “Official cannot be a subsidy or a benefit. Much less a reward or a punishment. And if there are cases in which it is, they must be corrected.”
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