Evening star., 1947-04-13

In Argentina. But there Is con-
tinual nibbling away at real press
freedom through pressure OF all
kinds. Such pressure has the simple
aim OF making It Improbable and
not so good business to criticize
anything the Peron regime does.
Method Effective.
This indirect approach at sitting
press freedom has been extremely
effective 50 far, according to COM
prehensive analysis Of the situation
made available to The Star by an
unusually well-informed source who
must remain anonymous because Of
his ofncial position.
The result Is that only one import
ant daily newspaper in Argentina
now is consistently outspoken In
criticizing actions Of the govern
ment. This is La Prensa. And La
Prensa now Is the object Of de-
termined government sponsored
boycott campaign, seeking to dis
courage people from reading the
paper or advertising In it.
Two other large morning dailies
that no one could term friendly to
the government continue to appear
in Buenos Aires, but they are much
more reserved critics than La Prensa.
These are La Nacion and Ell Mundo.
During the past year, disinterested
observers say, La Nacion has come
to = cautious position Of expressing
no very strong opinions either for or
against the government. El Mundo,
controlled by British capital, is ira
ditionally more reserved on ques-
tions of internal politics.
La Raxon Switched.
Among other Buenos Aires dailies,
La Razon, which q few months
lago was carrying on some criticism
Of the government, now has be-
come q firm booster Of the Peron
regime. FL Laborista is controlled
by Gen. Domingo Mercante, the
governor OF Buenos Aires Prov
ince; Ell Lider by Interior Minister
Angel Borlenghi, Democracia by
Mrs. Peron, La Epocha by Deputy
Eduardo Colon.
In the interior Of Argentina, most
Of the small newspapers have no
independent source for world news,
but get the news they print mainly
from radio broadcasts. The Buenos
Aires radio stations take their news
reports from ANDI {Agencia Noti-
ciosa de los Distribuidores al In
terior), an agency whose director
has close relations with leading men
In the government.
Another Argentine agency, Agen-
cia Noticiosa Saporiti, had been
squeezed out Of the field. Leandro
Saporiti, the head OF that agency,
says the government put pressure
on the radio stations not to use
his service because 1t contained COM
plete and objective news reports.
ANDI Is said to distribute no news
items that are not favorable to the
government.
Pressure Applied.
What happened to La Razon Is
cited as an example Of effective in
direct action against newspapers
that do not follow the Peron line.
The pressure on La Razon began
some months ago.
Municipal fire inspectors "dis-
covered" that a building used by
La Razon for storage of newsprint
and as a garage did not have a
water tank and accessories pre-
scribed for fire protection. The
space available for installing the
tank was inadequate, and La Ra-
zon tried to get permission to join
with a neighboring firm to install
one tank for both buildings. This
permission was denied, and La Ra-
zon put in its own tank at con-
siderable cost.
More inspectors then found fault
with the ventilating system in La
Razon's pressroom. The paper, try
ing to comply with the ruling,
ripped out the old ventilators to
install new ones, and then was
fined Immediately for having no
ventilators at all during the change
over.
Trucks Blocked.
To complicate life more for the
newspaper, the secretariat of aero
nautics marked off as reserved for
parking some of It's official cars the
space directly in front of the rear
entrance of La Razon's plant. The
newspapers trucks had been back
ing up to this entrance to load pa
pers for distribution throughout the
city. The official cars kept them
away. For awhile, La Razon tried
to load them "on the run"-throw
ing papers aboard the trucks as
they circled the block. Truck driv-
|ers were stopped and find frequent
ly by traffic policemen.
Meantime. city health inspectors
decreed that La Razon would have
to move all newsprint out of one of
its warehouses because of "insani-
tary" conditions.
La Razon also suffered through a
government decree which requires
all direct importers OF newsprint to
turn over to the government Is per
cent Of their imports, at cost. The
government sells the paper back at
prices varying with the degree Of
friendliness shown by purchasing
newspapers to the regime. At one
time La Rizon had to obtain more
Inewsprint in order to publish at all
the next day. The government sup