ARGENTINA: Evita & the Press

Argentina’s First Lady Eva Duarte de Perón was on the way to becoming First Lady of Argentina’s press. Last week she took over her third Buenos Aires newspaper, Noticias-Grdficas, and the capital had a good time with the story of how Evita swung the deal:

One afternoon, Evita met Noticias Publisher José Agusti, asked him bluntly if it was true that he had had offers for his paper. Shrewd businessman Agusti, onetime bitter enemy of the Peróns, replied that he had, but that he had not taken them very seriously. Eva persisted: “How much would you take, to allow you a profit?” Agusti named the fat figure of 6,000,000 pesos ($1,254,600). “As of right now,” said Evita, “Noticias is mine.”

Good Buying. Prosperous (circ. 300,000) Noticias, an afternoon sheet, was a logical buy for Eva’s holding company, Editorial Democracia, which already owned the dailies Democracia and Laborista. Evita’s pet, and purest example of the Peron press, is Democracia, which has built up to a 200,000 circulation and rolls gaily along; losing about 10 million pesos ($2,091,000) a year. Democracia has a staff photographer who specializes in pictures of Evita herself; a dozen or so may turn up in a single edition. For the most part Evita does her editing by telephone. When she does come around for a news conference, her editorial directors invariably find her advice excellent.

Newspaper properties are part of the Peronista control of the press. Bigger & better than Eva’s firm is the Compania ALEA, whose stockholders include the Perons and Economic Boss Miguel Miranda. ALEA controls three B.A. papers, has been buying up provincial journals.

Scarce newsprint, now imported and sold only by the government, has been Peron’s strongest leverage on the press, but publishers have also been harassed by special labor rules. Last fortnight, for example, Congress boosted wages of all newspaper employees 40 to 50%.

Good Selling. Most publishers have seen the wisdom of playing ball or selling out. Only four or five papers throughout the country are still in opposition to the regime. Of B.A.’s twelve leading dailies, ten are in the Peronista editorial groove; only the conservative Prensa and Nation hold out, under pressure.

Just before adjournment last week, Congress passed a new law defining libel as “anything which offends the dignity of any public official, whether the article refers directly to the person, or by allusion to him or the governmental organization of which he forms a part.” Penalties run up to three years in jail. A neat clause prohibits the introduction of evidence to prove the offender’s statements. Henceforth, Perón and La Señora could expect a good press.