MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina shuts down Internet service provided by the Clarin media group

Mrs Kirchner accuses Clarin of being biased in its coverage of news

Argentina’s government shut down the Internet service provided by Grupo Clarín SA Fibertel unit, saying the company’s merger with Cablevision SA was illegal. The move is the latest in a fight between the media group Clarin and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Mrs. Kirchner (and her husband and former president Nestor Kirchner) argue that Argentina’s biggest media company is biased in its coverage of the government. The media company also owns the newspaper Clarin, the most-read Spanish-language daily in Latin America.
Cablevision, in a statement, accused the government of acting in a “totalitarian” manner.

“Fibertel doesn’t exist anymore because of its own decision,” Planning Minister Julio De Vido said in a news conference Thursday in Buenos Aires. “They announced a merger that was never approved.”

Fibertel customers are free to find other service providers and the company will cease operations within 90 days, De Vido said. Fibertel was given a 90-day period of time for “migrating and protecting user data”.

The measure is documented in the 100-/10 Resolution. “Cablevisión acquired Internet service provider Fibertel without any Communications Secretary authorization, so the merger is considered an illegal one,” De Vido explained. “Cablevisión had been working under an unauthorized license since January 2009”

The government’s decision is “illegal and arbitrary,” and Cablevision will pursue all legal actions to continue with Fibertel’s internet service, the company said in an e-mail statement.

“This is a new and serious chapter amid an increasingly totalitarian series of attacks by the government against companies owned by Grupo Clarin,” Cablevision said.

About 63% of Grupo Clarin’s 1.87 billion pesos (470 million US dollars) in sales in the second quarter came from its cable and internet services, according to the company’s earnings report. Fibertel has about 1 million clients, the company said.