Argentina condemns Repsol journalist payoffs
Source: El Pais (Spain)
Argentina condemns Repsol journalist payoffs
President Fernández de Kirchner claims firm supplied 1.9 million euros a year to media
Alejandro Rebossio Buenos Aires 10 AGO 2012 - 20:10 CET
Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Thursday condemned oil company YPF for spending 11 million pesos (1.9 million euros) a year on paying off journalists while it was controlled by Spanish firm Repsol.
Following YPF’s nationalization in April, Fernández explained, the new management discovered it had been spending this money on “unconventional advertising” — which is to say unpublished advertisements.
“You’ve seen we have shale gas, which is unconventional?” she commented. “Well, there is also unconventional advertising. [...] What it unconventional advertising? Obviously it is not the kind you see on TV; they are bills that are paid as advertising, but the advertising doesn’t appear. So we also have a new concept: unconventional advertising — you pay it, but it doesn’t appear,” she said.
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YPF under Repsol was not the only organization to make such hidden payments to journalists. Other companies and even public bodies also paid them. To deal with the situation, Fernández proposed the establishment of a “law of public ethics” for journalists, in line with the one that already governs high-ranking civil servants.
Read more: http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/08/10/inenglish/1344622115_034309.html