On August 18 and 19 the plants of the two dailies, La Nación and Clarín, were blocked, resulting in La Nación’s and Clarín’s impaired distribution on Saturday and in their complete failure to be distributed on Sunday.
This took place amidst the direct action launched by the Newspapers and Magazines Distributors and Retailers Union demanding higher commissions than what they are currently collecting for selling papers, on the grounds that fewer copies are being sold since 2001.
Blockings to Newspaper Printing Plants
Faced with the blockings to the Clarín and La Nación printing plants carried out by the Newspapers and Magazines Distributors and Retailers Union on August 18 and 19, Foundación LED wishes to express its deep concern for a repeated protest methodology which directly harms the right to press freedom and to freedom of expression.
Legitimate worker claims are core rights which our Foundation stands up for; by no means is this an attempt at curtailing their exercise.
Nevertheless, the way in which such rights are being exercised should not affect the exercise of other liberties guaranteed in our Constitution and in the International Treaties which have been declared to be the law of the land in our Constitution.
The Chapultepec Declaration is crystal clear when it states that “No one may restrict or deny these rights” and that “restrictions on the circulation of the media” are directly against freedom of press.
It is not the first time that direct action taken by union organizations in our country has had a strong negative impact on citizen rights to information, which is why our Foundation feels strongly about the need to highlight what has happened, stopping it from becoming a frequent practice.
Foundación LED calls upon workers and urges them not to forsake any equitable claim of theirs but rather to channel such claims in a way that will not affect the rights of other citizens, and it also calls upon society at large, encouraging it not to give up, but rather to keep on preserving the democratic principles of our society.