In a surprising request, public works tycoon Lázaro Báez asked the courts to prevent all media outlets from reporting any information on his companies.
Báez asked for a preliminary injunction that forces “mass media, news portals, public organisms and newspapers” to refrain from giving information, opinion or comment over the commercial activities of the firms he owns.
The request was made through his lawyer Juan Pablo Gregori days after newspaper La Nación informed that Báez paid the Kirchners millions of pesos to rent hotel rooms in Las Dunas and Alto Calafate, in the Santa Cruz province, and that those payments were made through the Austral Construcciones and Valle Mitre companies, owned by the Kirchnerite businessman.
Gregori argued that the story — with the byline of Hugo Alconada Mon — had used confidential information and called for the investigation of the AFIP tax bureau and the Financial Information Unit (UIF) headed by José Sbatella.
Báez said the injunction should last until the courts could establish “how the information came out of the private area of the company.”
Judges “should not rule out the possibility that this information (has reached the journalist) through bribes to public officials,” the tycoon argued.
gov’t accuses media
Also yesterday, the national government insisted on accusing mass media of “conducting political operations” in order to divide society.
Some media are “in staunch opposition” to President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration, Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich told reporters.
The government’s Chief-of-Staff Oscar Parrilli said newspapers Clarín and La Nación are “distorting the facts” when they argue that Fernández de Kirchner and her late husband Néstor Kirchner concealed information concerning payments made to hotels in El Calafate.
“All this is false. Both buildings and rents had been declared by Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner since 2011, when they detailed who the legal inheritors are,” Parrilli told Radio Vorterix.
“La Nación and Clarín are demonizing a person whose legal situation must be determined by the courts. Báez had his business and if he was renting (those hotel rooms) we would probably have subleased them later.”
Báez’ request is shameful, said head of the Radical Party (UCR) Ernesto Sanz.
“If (the information) was fake, he would accuse the newspaper of perjury, but if he asks not to publish the story beforehand it’s because the information is true,” Sanz said.
Herald with DyN
Storm aftermath
Suspended Prosecutor José María Campagnoli yesterday demanded a preliminary injunction to rule out the administrative inquiry against him. “Public opinion understands that corruption erodes the bases of the democratic system and that denounciations against high government officials should be investigated,” said Campagnoli, who before being suspended was investigating money-laundering allegations against Lázaro Báez.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald