For the past week, the 700 employees and correspondents of the Argentine news agency Télam, closed since March 4, have been waiting to know their fate. On the evening of Sunday, March 10, the government sent an e-mail extending the suspension of the agency's activities by seven days, and offering a voluntary redundancy scheme to all its staff. This proposal was rejected outright by the Buenos Aires Press Union, SiPreBa, and by employees at a general meeting on Monday morning.

This marked the start of one of ultra-liberal Javier Milei's campaign promises, made official on March 1, in his speech opening the parliamentary sessions. In front of lawmakers, the far-right head of state announced the "closure of Télam, which for years operated as a Kirchnerist propaganda agency," a reference to the political movement of center-left former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (2007-2015), his sworn enemy.

"We knew it was coming, but at first we thought it was just another government announcement, another provocation," said a still-stunned Télam employee – those without union protection preferred to remain anonymous. "When we received the e-mail exempting us from our activities at 1:32 am [on the night of March 3], we were immediately afraid that they would empty the office," she added.

Signed by Diego Chaher, the financial auditor appointed to control all state-owned media, the email was terse. "All Télam staff are hereby notified that they are excused from their professional duties with continued remuneration for seven days from Sunday at 11:59 pm." Immediately afterward, in the middle of the night, the police barricaded the agency's buildings to deny access to its employees.

Since then, the news agency's home page has read: "The page is under reconstruction," and its contents are inaccessible. A few days later, to justify the closure of the premises, Milei claimed that he feared their "occupation" by some of his employees, whom he called "hooligans." "Using journalists' political opinions or saying we're hooligans are excuses. We want them to remove the barricades so we can get back to work," claimed journalist Jazmin Guzman.

"This is one of the worst attacks on freedom of expression in the last 40 years of democracy," employees denounced. The decision "has nothing to do with pluralism of information" or "freedom of the press," retorted government spokesman Manuel Adorni on March 4. He put forward an economic argument to justify the closure of the agency, which he said had recorded "estimated losses of 20 billion pesos," or around €21 million, by 2023. A surprising figure, given that in its 2022 budget, the agency posted an operating deficit of just 2.4 billion pesos.

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