Agustín Rossi, from the AFI
The National Academy of Journalism came out yesterday to repudiate Agustín Rossi’s complaint against journalists: “He intends to criminalize journalistic practice,” he accused.
In a statement, he rejected the lawsuit against Joaquín Morales Solá and Daniel Santoro. “The chief of the spies wants to control what is published and that is incompatible with the public light of democracy,” the entity warned. Both journalists denounced by the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI), are part of the National Academy of Journalism.
“An official of the highest hierarchical level intends to criminalize the exercise of journalism by wanting to turn the Penal Code into a punishment tool,” the Academy said in the text repudiating the decision. “At the same time, the controller (of the Intelligence Secretariat) expressed that he wants the journalists to tell the Justice who gave them the information, expressly violating article 43 of the National Constitution on the secrecy of sources,” added the Association that brings together the journalists with the longest experience in our country.
“Journalists are guardians of the public interest and have the role of considering whether the secrets that public institutions keep are legitimate or not. Especially, in an agency of enormous institutional importance, such as the AFI, it is especially relevant that journalism investigate and inform society about its state of situation,” the statement added.
The entity argued that “national and international jurisprudence protects journalists in their defense of society’s right to information against state secrets. In fact, that is one of the keys to democratic life: in authoritarianism, journalists are subordinated to intelligence services; On the other hand, in democracies, the press has the power to define what is the public interest that must be defended, and what information must be published”.
And he concludes: “For this reason, for the head of the AFI to demand that journalists be immersed in the National Intelligence Law is to extend his control beyond Republican limits; That the chief of spies wants to control what is published is incompatible with the public light of democracy”
the complaint
Rossi, filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against the journalists Morales Solá and Santoro and the newspapers Clarín and La Nación, whom he accused of violating the Intelligence Law, and assured that there was a “press operation” promoted by legislators from Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) on a supposed “military table” destined to make illegal eavesdropping.
“The legislators, instead of analyzing the request for reports and using it for their parliamentary activity and prioritizing what intelligence production means in Argentina, they gave it to journalists so that they carry out a press operation and that the AFI appears as a headline in the two most important newspapers in the country”, stated Rossi.
