Página 12
Front page from April 12, 2011.
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)Grupo Octubre
Founder(s)Jorge Lanata
Osvaldo Soriano, Alberto Elizalde Leal
PublisherEditorial La Página S.A.
Editor-in-chiefVíctor Santa María
EditorMario Wainfeld
Eduardo Aliverti
Rodrigo Fresán
Irina Hauser
Adrián Paenza
Raúl Kollmann
Mariana Carbajal
Founded26 May 1987
Political alignmentKirchnerism[1][2]
LanguageSpanish
HeadquartersBuenos Aires, Argentina
Circulation51,000
Websitepagina12.com.ar

Página 12 (sometimes stylised as Pagina/12, Pagina|12 or Pagina12) is a newspaper published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was founded on 25 May 1987 by journalist Jorge Lanata and writers Osvaldo Soriano and Alberto Elizalde Leal.

His first president was businessman Fernando Sokolowicz, in 1994 Grupo Clarín supposedly owned a share;[3] Lanata claimed in a 2007 interview that businessman Rudy Ulloa (a businessman close to former President Néstor Kirchner) also owned a share.[4] Since 2016 the newspaper is property of Grupo Octubre, a multimedia company created by Víctor Santa María, president of the Justicialist Party in the Buenos Aires.

The publishers also distribute a supplement covering Rosario area news, Rosario 12, since 1991.

According to in house surveys, 58% of the newspaper readership is between 18 and 52 years old and belong to the medium and medium high socio economic groups: AB and C1/C2 [5]

History

Jorge Lanata, founder of the newspaper, in 1994

The name of the paper comes from the fact that its preliminary editions as it was being developed had 12 pages. The name had already been chosen, thus the publishers opted to reserve the twelfth page for reports or news stories of central importance. Another version holds that the paper was going to be called "Reporter" but when the owners went to register the name, they were told that the name was taken. They then decided to count the number of pages in order to choose a name.

With a stark design, a daily circulation of 10,000 copies and a size of 16 pages that doubled within a few weeks, the paper was a sharp contrast with other Argentinian newspapers due to its progressive orientation, its in-depth articles (each one occupying more than a page on average) and rich analysis. Inspired by the French paper Libération,[6] its style contrasted with the conventional Argentine press, where a higher priority was placed on showcasing a wide variety of information as opposed to more probing reports.

The editorial staff included journalists such as Horacio Verbitsky, writers Tomás Eloy Martínez, Osvaldo Soriano and José María Pasquini Durán, Juan Gelman, Eduardo Galeano, Osvaldo Bayer, Rodrigo Fresán, Alan Pauls, Juan Forn, Eduardo Berti, Ernesto Tenembaum, Homero Alsina Thevenet, José Pablo Feinmann, Juan Sasturain Miguel Repiso (Rep) who since the release of first edition has been in charge of illustrating the back cover and various sections of the paper, have been regular contributors. The first manager was Jorge Lanata, later replaced by Ernesto Tiffenberg.

The newspaper had a close relation with the governments of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, and received huge amounts of state advertising as a result.[7] Cristina Kirchner made a speech during the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the newspaper in 2012, praising the editorial line, journalists and authorities. She said that "there is a true cultural battle. We'll keep fighting in all fields, and Página 12 too. They will only defeat us when we cease to fight".[8] She made reference to a conspiracy theory, frequent in the Relato K, that considers that the Kirchners were attacked by a cabal of hegemonic groups.[8]

Mauricio Macri was elected president in 2015, ending the Kirchnerite regime, and the advertising scheme that benefited Página 12. The newspaper had to seek private advertising as a result. The newspaper was also bought by Víctor Santa María, president of the Justicialist Party in the Buenos Aires city, and president of the Suterh union. Santa María had used the union funding to start the "Octubre" group, which also includes the newspaper Diario Z, the magazines Caras y Caretas and Planeta urbano and two radios.[9]

Editorial stance

Página 12 is a Kirchnerist newspaper.[1]

The owner Víctor Santa María considers that, although it is not a complete advocate of the Kirchners, the newspaper supports most of their policies. In turn, it was also against the policies of the president Mauricio Macri. Santa María considers that media independence and journalistic objectivity do not exist.[1]

It is one of the most popular newspapers in Argentina, being the fourth most visited portal in the news area. Since its founding, it was an alternative newspaper that sought to be progressive and analytical. It can be defined as a dissident and leftist newspaper.[10]

Beyond presenting the news, the objective of Page 12 was to know them in depth and analyze them. It has a very strong commitment to society and has revealed various scandals at the time. It has maintained a critical stance against the government and corruption, which has resulted in the awarding of awards for his fight for the right of expression.[11]

Controversies

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, during the 25th anniversary of the newspaper

When Julio Nudler, who was the head of the economic department of Página 12, impeached the chief of the Kirchner cabinet with corruption allegations in 2004 the directorate of Página 12 refused to publish an article of Nudler.[12][13] Nudler accused Página 12 of censorship and the article was finally published, with an added note from his colleague Horacio Verbitsky stating that some of the data in the article was wrong.[14]

The government of the Kirchners favored Página 12 with a huge portion of the advertising media selection. State advertising was destined to media politically aligned to the Kirchners, instead of to the most sold ones; this was used as a reward to such media for their political support. The Kirchner administration ceased to release full numbers of this operation in 2009. As of 2010, the partial numbers released revealed that Página 12 received 33.9 million pesos, 26.5% of the total advertising. The media of Sergio Szpolski, also a vocal supporter to the Kirchners, got 21% of the total, and both of them combined received the 47.5% of all the advertising. In contrast, Clarín, the highest sold newspaper, only got 12.9 million, 10% of the total advertising.[7] Mauricio Macri was elected president in 2015, and redefined the advertising scheme. Página 12 received 3.2 million in 2017 under the new scheme.[15] Víctor Santa María considers that this is a campaign of defamation by a cabal of hegemonic groups, and that the freedom of the press is in danger. He was supported by a number of former populist Latin American presidents, who wrote a manifesto against the perceived censorship against Página 12.[16] In 2009, Página 12 stridently defended a group of anarchists who attacked marchers in a parade in Buenos Aires celebrating Israel's Independence Day, claiming that the anarchists were innocent and had themselves been attacked by a "secret group speaking Hebrew"; Osvaldo Bayer and other intellectuals wrote an open letter in the paper calling on Israel's Ambassador to Argentina to drop the charges against the anarchists in the name of world peace, which made no sense because the charges were filed by the local Argentine government and the Israeli Ambassador wasn't involved in any of the events related to it. Several of the anarchists ended up being convicted of assault and disorderly conduct and served prison terms.

When Jorge Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis, Página 12 published renewed allegations about his actions during the Dirty War. However, due to the Pope's popularity in Argentina, Cristina Kirchner made what the political analyst Claudio Fantini called a "Copernican shift" in her relations with him and fully embraced the Francis phenomenon.[17] Página 12 then removed their controversial articles about Bergoglio, written by Horacio Verbitsky, from their web page, as a result of this change.[18]

A 2012 comic strip titled "An Adventure of David Gueto" featured a parody of a DJ, asking the prisoners of a Nazi concentration camp to dance, and a caricature of Adolf Hitler approved the idea, adding that "if they are relaxed, you get a better soap". Sergio Widder, director for Latin America office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said: "This so-called parody is beyond offensive. As a newspaper that has been a champion for human rights and fight against racism since its foundation, we expect the editors of Página 12 to immediately and publicly apologize for this distortion of history. Página 12 'Young Culture' section would better serve its youthful readers by teaching them the importance of preserving the memory of the Nazi genocide through remembrance, education and prevention of human rights violations".[19] The newspaper issued an apology afterwards.[19]

In July 2017, Aerolíneas Argentinas ceased distribution of the Página 12 newspapers on their planes. They argued that the newspaper had a debt on the payment for this distribution since the previous year. ADEPA voiced their concern, and asked both parts to find a satisfactory solution.[20] The newspaper was critical of President Mauricio Macri.

Kirchnerism returned to power in 2019, with the election of Alberto Fernández. A common Kirchnerite explanation for the ongoing crisis is that the IMF loan received during the 2018 Argentine monetary crisis was used to finance an illegal capital flight performed by friends of Mauricio Macri. Verbitsky wrote a report in 2020 to support it, detailing the Argentine people that bought the most US dollars during the presidency of Mauricio Macri. Journalist Carlos Pagni dismissed the report, pointing that it confuses legal and illegal capital flight, and that most acquisitions of dollars listed in it were completely legal. He also noted that former president Cristina Kirchner was absent from the list, although she detailed a large bought in her autobiography Sinceramente, that would place her at the 91º position.[21]

Awards

In 2007, Casa América Catalunya, directed by the governments of Spain, Barcelona and Catalunya, gave Página 12 his annual prize for Freedom of expression for its "rigor and professionalism". placed at the service of justice and human rights" through hands of Spaniard musician Joan Manuel Serrat who said: "I think we are in this situation that often occurs in which those of us who participate knows perfectly what is happening, which is so important that it fills us with pride and is part of our memory, but outsiders don't really know. We must transmit this to others, transmitting what is Página 12, what these journalists of Argentina have done, those who made Página 12 possible and made other newspapers and publications possible, sometimes at risk of his own life"[22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 ""No existe el periodismo independiente", dice el nuevo dueño del diario 'Página/12'". 28 February 2016.
  2. ↑ Casale O’Ryan, Mariana (2014). The Making of Jorge Luis Borges as an Argentine Cultural Icon. MHRA. ISBN 9781781880777. ISSN 0329-1332. OCLC 23959868.
  3. ↑ López, José Ignacio. El Hombre de Clarín. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 2008.
  4. ↑ "En la provincia del Presidente se perdió algo muy pesado: el miedo". Diario Perfil. 17 June 2007. Archived from the original on 18 December 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  5. ↑ "Nuestra historia" [Our History]. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  6. ↑ Balcarce, Luis (14 April 2013). "Jorge Lanata: "El kirchnerismo ha armado un enorme aparato de prensa con dinero público que no ve nadie"" (in Spanish). periodistadigital.com. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
  7. 1 2 "Szpolski y Página/12 recibieron casi la mitad de la publicidad oficial" [Szpolski and Página 12 got almost half of the state advertising] (in Spanish). Perfil. January 20, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  8. 1 2 "Cristina festejó con Página 12, sin recordar a Lanata" [Cristina celebrated with Página 12, ignoring Lanata]. La Nación (in Spanish). May 31, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  9. ↑ Gabriel Ziblat (February 28, 2016). ""No existe el periodismo independiente", dice el nuevo dueño del diario 'Página/12'" ["There's no such a thing as independent journalism", says the new owner of the Página 12 newspaper] (in Spanish). Perfil. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  10. ↑ "▷ los 10 mejores Diarios de toda la Argentina ◁ [2020]".
  11. ↑ "▷ los 10 mejores Diarios de toda la Argentina ◁ [2020]".
  12. ↑ "Grave censura política de Página/12 a Julio Nudler". rodolfowalsh.org (in Spanish). 28 October 2004. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  13. ↑ "De títeres y titiriteros: la columna de Julio Nudler". perfil.com (in Spanish). 5 May 2008. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  14. ↑ "Nudler sobre Verbitsky". rodolfowalsh.org (in Spanish). 16 November 2004. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  15. ↑ Alejandro Alfie (October 31, 2017). "Aumenta el gasto en publicidad oficial, pero baja en medios K" [The budget for official advertising increases, but it lowers for the K media]. Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Santa María se defiende: "Apuntan a callar cualquier manifestación disidente"" [Santa María defends himself: "They want to silence any dissident voice"] (in Spanish). Perfil. February 14, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  17. ↑ Associated Press in Buenos Aires (27 March 2013). "Cristina Fernández de Kirchner turns Pope Francis from foe to friend". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  18. ↑ "Página 12 sacó notas de Verbitsky sobre Bergoglio y la dictadura" [Página 12 removed Verbitsky's articles about Bergoglio and the dictatorship] (in Spanish). Perfil. 18 November 2014. Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  19. 1 2 "Pagina/12 Issues Apology - Wiesenthal Center Expresses Indignation at a Comic Strip Published in Argentine Daily Pagina/12 Mocking Victims of the Holocaust; Urges Immediate Public Apology". Simon Wiesenthal Center. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  20. ↑ "ADEPA pidió que Aerolíneas Argentinas permita la circulación de Página 12" [ADEPA asked Aerolineas Argentinas to allow the distribution of Página 12] (in Spanish). Perfil. July 10, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Aunque admitió haber convertido su millonario patrimonio en dólares, Cristina Kirchner no figura en la lista que denuncia el kirchnerismo" [Although she admitted to turn her millionaire wealth to dollars, Cristina Kirchner is not listed at the list denounced by Kirchnerism] (in Spanish). Clarín. June 5, 2020. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Por su compromiso con la memoria" (in Spanish). Retrieved May 6, 2017.
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