Kirchner Vs. the Press: Give Government "Crisis" Powers And You Won't Get It Back

From The Wall Street Journal and The CATO Institute:

THE AMERICASJUNE 15, 2009.
Kirchner vs. The Press Give government 'crisis' power and you won't get it back.
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY..

In the wake of the country's 2002 economic collapse, the Argentine Congress gave the executive immense powers on the grounds that the circumstances called for extraordinary government action.



Seven years later those powers have not been rescinded and the state dominates the economy as an owner and regulator. Argentina now faces the threat of a further consolidation of control by President Cristina Kirchner through means similar to those employed by Hugo Chávez. As in Venezuela, free speech and the free press are being targeted for increased repression.



Let this be a lesson to any modern democracy that cedes broad power to government in a time of crisis: Granting power to the executive is easy; getting it back isn't.



Congressional midterm elections will be held on June 28, and polls suggest that Argentines are growing wary of their leaders. Mrs. Kirchner's wing of the Peronist party, known as the Victory Front, is expected to take a drubbing. If so, the president and her husband Néstor Kirchner, who preceded her as president and who likely is still guiding policy from behind the scenes, will face a less pliable legislature.



This would be good news for the country. Under Kirchner authoritarianism, Argentina has moved from democratic capitalism -- no matter how weak -- to an increasingly repressive and isolated state-controlled economic system. Property-rights protection has been eviscerated. Entrepreneurs have been cowed into silence by state threats of tax investigations and regulatory harassment. State-sponsored street thugs target businesses that resist the presidency's agenda. Mr. Kirchner is described by his adversaries as something like Vladimir Putin without the charm.



Clearly, much of the country is fed up with kirchnerismo. The promises of prosperity built on class envy have not materialized. Farmers oppose Mrs. Kirchner's export taxes. She has further alienated middle-class voters by confiscating all privately held pension accounts and raising property taxes. She now wants to raise the sales tax. All of this is happening in recession, while economists estimate that inflation is running above 18%.



Yet even if Mrs. Kirchner loses her congressional majority in June, risks to liberty remain. Thanks to a government decision to hold an early election, the new Congress will not be sworn in for eight months, providing the first couple with a wide window of opportunity to tighten its grip on power. An informed population would of course resist further antidemocratic moves, which is why the Kirchners are escalating efforts to gag the press.



From his earliest days as president, Mr. Kirchner tried to keep media critics quiet by using the government's publicity budget to reward supporters and starve those outlets that dared to print criticism. It was an effective tool in an economy on life support, where advertising had dried up.



As the economy recovered, this strategy began to cost more. In 2008 the government spent $100 million in "advertising" in the media, an eight-fold increase since 2003. It directs its business to news outlets with a supportive editorial line.



Yet independent voices remain, like that of the influential national newspaper, La Nación (which publishes some Wall Street Journal content). This obviously troubles the Kirchners. So the government has taken out the sledge hammer. The director of the secretariat of state intelligence (S.I.) has filed two criminal actions against Bartolomé Mitre, the director of the paper, and Julio Saguier, the president of the corporation that owns it.



They are charged with slander for publishing two editorials that question the political activities of the secretive intelligence agency and its director. Somehow both cases have landed with the same judge -- though the odds of that are remote -- and he has allowed the cases to go forward even though the Supreme Court ruled last year that opinions criticizing public officers cannot be grounds for civil or criminal actions. Press critics have questioned whether the two can get a fair trial. If found guilty in both cases, the accused could get three years in prison.



The government also has drafted a new radio and television law that, if approved, seems sure to quash media freedom. It would reserve only one-third of the broadcast spectrum for the private sector; one-third would be state-owned broadcasting and one-third would be for nongovernmental organizations chosen by the state. It is not clear how licenses would be awarded, but they would last only 10 years and could be renewed only once. Some media companies now operating would be ineligible to compete. The law makes no mention of press freedom, and officials have not asked for comments from the industry.



Argentines should remember that survival of the republic requires a strong fourth estate. Survival of the Kirchner regime requires the opposite. In the coming months only one will prevail.



Write to O'Grady@wsj.com