Argentine newspaper ordered to rectify dictatorship-era article

A court in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires province, has ordered a local newspaper to publish a correction to an article printed in the 1970s, clarifying that 37 people it said had been arrested or killed during a military operation were actually kidnapped, tortured, executed, and disappeared by Argentina’s last dictatorship. The judges granted a request from the Attorney General’s Office to order La Nueva newspaper to issue a correction as a form of “moral reparation” for 37 victims in a trial that examined atrocities committed against 333 people. The Attorney General’s Office said the decision constituted “right of reply” for the victims in question.  The newspaper’s story said they had been “arrested or taken out during a confrontation with the military.” Dictatorship-aligned publications often used this phrase in coverage of the deaths of people who had actually been taken by the armed forces as part of the dictatorship’s deadly political persecution. The ruling said that investigations have since proved that the victims did not die in combat, but rather were kidnapped. Some were then tortured and executed. The fate of others is unknown. The ruling against La Nueva newspaper was part of the conviction of dictatorship criminals in the Bahía Blanca area in late December. Sixteen retired military officers were sentenced to life in prison, while 13 others — plus two healthcare workers — received sentences of up to 20 years for crimes against humanity. One man was acquitted. The trial, which began in 2022, judged charges of false imprisonment, torture, homicide, kidnapping of minors under the age of 10, and sexual abuse.  The defendants were members of the 5th Corps of the Argentine army, which was headquartered in Bahía Blanca and had jurisdiction over part of southern Buenos Aires province, as well as Río Negro, Neuquén, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego provinces. Once the sentence is upheld, La Nueva will have 10 days to publish an article or message correcting its original report. La Nueva was called La Nueva Provincia between its founding in 1898 and 2017. During the 1976-1983 dictatorship, its editorial line was supportive of the dictatorship, and it published several editorials backing the junta. It had also backed Argentina’s previous dictatorships. Vicente Massot, the editor-in-chief and owner at the time, became the first Argentine journalist to be accused of crimes against humanity in 2014 because of allegations that articles published by La Nueva Provincia constituted part of the dictatorship’s plan to exterminate its political foes. He was also accused of bearing responsibility for the murder of two printing workers and union members in 1976. He was acquitted of both charges.