(Buenos Aires) The media, the opposition and civil society expressed their concerns on Wednesday about a decree issued by Argentina’s ultra-liberal President Javier Milei on access to official information, seeing it as a “regression” in terms of transparency and freedom of the press.
The decree, published on Friday, amends a law that has governed access to public information since 2016. In particular, it reduces the scope of documents considered to be of legitimate public interest, excluding, for example, “preparatory deliberations and working documents, or documents relating to the preliminary examination of a file.”
Among the exceptions that the government can also invoke to not disclose information, the fact that it “may, directly or indirectly, cause damage and harm.”
In an open letter, nearly 70 civil society, press and human rights organisations denounced a decree which “extends the realm of secrecy and introduces discretion” in access to information.
“Serious setback for freedom,” headlined the conservative daily La Nacion on Wednesday, for which “Milei is redefining what public information is” in line with his explicit hostility towards critical journalists.
Part of the press also links the decree to Milei’s annoyance with questions about his dogs (five huge mastiffs), the cost of the kennels built at the presidency, etc. The new decree thus now explicitly excludes “any information relating to the private sphere of the civil servant […]especially when demand seeks to penetrate the domestic sphere.”
In July, an order from the Attorney General of the Treasury, the State’s “legal defender”, formally established that Milei’s dogs were “part of the private sphere” and that the executive was justified in not informing.
ADEPA, an influential Argentine press association, expressed concern that secrecy, “sometimes inevitable” in a democracy, was being extended “beyond what is exceptionally necessary”, a way, according to it, of “undermining the republican foundations of the country”.
An opposition leader, Senator Martin Lousteau (centre right), mocked “very strange libertarians who call themselves champions of freedom, but restrict access to information”.
ADEPA has called on the executive to review its decree, while organizations are considering an appeal for unconstitutionality.