The Argentine government on Monday made official the closure of the public news agency Telam, first announced in March, and its transformation into a public advertising and propaganda agency.
Telam will cease to operate, as it has done since its creation, in the activities of journalistic services and as a press agency
the official bulletin published on Monday indicates. From now on, the agency founded in 1945 will focus its activities on the company’s new strategic direction, which is to operate as an advertising and propaganda agency
.
The new State Advertising Agency (APE) will be responsible for the development, production, marketing and distribution of national and/or international advertising material
details the text.
We continue our struggle to defend the employment and social role of public media, which this government intends to destroy.
reacted in a statement the Buenos Aires press union (SiPreBA) and a group of Télam employees.
In early March, the ultraliberal government of Prime Minister Javier Milei suspended the activities of the public news agency and blocked access to its buildings in Buenos Aires.
Mr Milei argued that the agency had been used in recent decades as a Kirchnerist propaganda agency
in reference to the former Peronist (centre-left) president Crisitina Kirchner.
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Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner (File photo)
Photo : Reuters / Marcos Brindicci
Founded in 1945 by former President Juan Domingo Peron, then Secretary of Labor and Social Security, the Télam agency employed 700 people and broadcast around 500 national news dispatches, 200 photos, as well as video and radio content every day.
About 30% of employees have accepted a voluntary retirement offer, and others are expected to be integrated into the new APE.
In 2018, the (liberal) presidency of Mauricio Macri fired some 40% of Télam’s employees, but courts later ordered the reinstatement of most of them.
