Argentine President Javier Milei restored journalists’ access to the Casa Rosada on Monday, the Associated Press reported, more than a week after blocking credentialed reporters from the presidential palace and unleashing a volley of social media insults that drew condemnation from across Argentina’s political and civil society.
Most journalists said they were able to enter the Pink House for the first time since April 23, but authorities denied entry to two television channels, Todo Noticias and Channel 13, without explanation. The government also imposed new physical restrictions on the roughly 60-member press corps, hastily erecting barriers that blocked stairwells and hallways, installing frosted glass on windows, and requiring reporters to surrender their press passes upon leaving the building.
Milei’s Cabinet chief, Manuel Adorni, defended the measures at a rare news conference on Monday, saying the government was “simply enforcing the regulations.” “We are fully in favor of press freedom … but we will not in any way allow acts endangering national security to be committed behind its back,” Adorni told reporters. He insisted that “this is not censoring freedom of expression.”
The government had shuttered the press room used by credentialed journalists for decades after accusing Todo Noticias of espionage, alleging the channel used smart glasses to film parts of the Casa Rosada without authorization. Todo Noticias maintains it received official permission to capture the footage and that the images aired have long been publicly accessible.
The press room closure and its aftermath added to a pattern of attacks on the media by Milei, whose hostility toward the press mirrors the aggressive approach of his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, press freedom advocates told the AP.
Reporters Without Borders reported last week that Argentina’s ranking on its press freedom index had plummeted from 66 to 98, one of the steepest drops of any South American country. The group said it had recorded a “rise in government hostility toward and pressure on the press” from Milei and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, the two most vocal Latin American supporters of Trump. “Insults, defamation, and threats from Javier Milei’s administration toward journalists and media critical of his government have become commonplace since he took office,” the group added, according to the AP.
Milei has escalated his media-bashing as his flagship campaigns against corruption and inflation falter. He posts the slogan “We don’t hate journalists enough” on X nearly every day. Late Monday, he took to social media to castigate those who “accuse us of censorship and violations of freedom of speech.” In an ideal free market, the libertarian leader wrote, “society itself would take care of cleaning the system by bankrupting media outlets that constantly publish falsehoods.”