Argentina's Biggest Newspaper El Clarin Fires 56 Journalists Without Warning

Dozens of journalists Wednesday could not enter to work at the newspaper El Clarin in Buenos Aires because this private company fired them without any sign of courtesy to their years of service.

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"I was the Sports editor until yesterday. I worked almost forty years here. Like my colleagues, I received an email informing us we have been thrown out," Guillermo Tagliaferri said and commented that job losses are happening throughout Argentina due to "an economic policy that destroys working places and does not respects worker's rights."

The newspaper facilities remained guarded to prevent 56 journalists from trying to enter. Nevertheless, the fired workers immediately started a rally outside El Clarin.

"We are on a 24-hour demonstration against 56 dismissals which were carried forward with the methods of fear such as police, fences, blacklists," journalist Daniel Mecca reported through social networks.

The company did not give further explanations except a statement from Manager Hector Aranda, who argued a "reengineering process" that required "renewing jobs, adding new capabilities and also resizing areas to ensure a balanced transition."

A week before, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a study of El Clarin media group found that the corporation publishes the best-selling newspaper, controls provincial newspapers, manages the second largest open TV network, and is an important shareholder in the only paper factory Argentina has.

"The Clarín Group is also the main beneficiary of the government's advertising," local media Las Heras recalled.

So far the fired journalists have been unsuccessfully requesting that the company starts a "negotiation round table." Solidarity with the affected journalists was immediately felt through posters which were placed in the Buenos Aires Press Union and Pagina 12, Perfil and La Nacion newsrooms.

According to RT data, 75 percent of the Argentine media outlets have already experienced job losses leaving 3,500 workers unemployed since Mauricio Macri came to power in 2016. In Argentina, the current unemployment rate is 9.1 percent while poverty is at 32 percent.