Argentina’s president blocked accredited reporters from entering the government’s headquarters, the Casa Rosada, and took to social media in all caps to insult the country’s news media as “filthy scum that claims to be journalists.” He also posted an AI-generated image that showed a local TV journalist in an orange prison jumpsuit. The move last week, when Javier Milei expelled the entire press corp from the Casa Rosada, marked the latest escalation in a wide-ranging anti-media campaign that has become a hallmark of his tenure.
Who Gets Shut Out
The people pushed out first were the roughly 60 reporters covering the Casa Rosada. As the government pulled their press credentials on Thursday, Milei fired off posts: “Disgusting scum, how about you try stopping the lies?” he wrote. “Oh I forgot, you lot are corrupt junkies hooked on advertising bucks and bribes.” The message was not subtle. Access to the seat of executive power was narrowed, then stripped, while the president used the same social media channels to publicly degrade the journalists he was excluding.
Milei’s spokesperson, Javier Lanari, said Thursday that the government had blocked press access “as a preventative measure” after a local TV channel aired footage filmed with smart glasses from inside the Casa Rosada, allegedly without authorization. Authorities in charge of security at the Casa Rosada are suing the Todo Noticias network, Lanari said, accusing it of “illegal espionage.” He did not respond to a request for further comment. On her program Sunday, Luciana Geuna, one of the journalists from Todo Noticias, said they had notified press officers of their filming plans in advance. Geuna said the footage showed easily accessible parts of the Casa Rosada that had been shown on TV before.
What the Apparatus Is Doing
The ban did not appear out of nowhere. Last year, the government constrained the movements of media within the building, designating certain wings of the Casa Rosada off limits and capping attendance at news briefings. This month, authorities barred six accredited media outlets from accessing the Casa Rosada and the lower house of Congress, accusing the journalists of involvement in Kremlin-backed disinformation. The reporters denied any connection to the Russian government. Then came last week’s lawsuit against the two journalists who captured footage using Meta smart glasses.
The pattern is clear enough in the facts alone: tighter access, more accusations, more legal pressure, and fewer reporters allowed near the people and offices making the decisions. Milei has not held a single press conference as president. He prefers to push his message through slogans and AI-generated memes. He rarely gives interviews to established outlets but frequently appears on radio shows of right-wing influencers. He has promoted social media provocateurs to government positions and mobilized a new generation of digital activists to rail against the traditional news media that he accuses of leaning left.
Over just four days this month, Milei, an avid user of X, wrote 86 posts taunting and insulting journalists, according to an analysis of his feed between April 2 and 5 by prominent Argentine daily La Nación. He re-shared 874 such attacks in that time, including one post asking that he designate the press a terrorist organization and many laced with sexual innuendo. Most of his posts about the media include his signature slogan, “We don’t hate journalists enough” and repeat the claim that 95% of journalists are criminals. He often singles out specific reporters critical of his administration with epithets ranging from “dirty operative” to “human garbage.”
The Reform Trap and the Court Route
Instead of opening the building to scrutiny, Milei has turned to the courts. Taking a cue from Trump, who has waged legal battles with The Associated Press, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC and CBS News, Milei has filed defamation lawsuits against at least eight journalists in the last year and encouraged his allies to do the same. He also modified an open-records law to limit the scope of publicly available information and, in 2024, shut down Argentina’s state news agency Telam, accusing it of being a propaganda mouthpiece for the left-leaning populist opposition. It has since been transformed into an advertising agency.
The backlash has come through the same institutions that are supposed to mediate these conflicts. An opposition lawmaker sued the government and a dozen other legislators requested an urgent meeting with officials over what they described as an “institutional undermining of freedom of expression.” Even the Argentine Catholic Church weighed in Monday, stressing the need to reject divisive rhetoric and noting the press “had operated virtually uninterrupted in the Casa Rosada since 1940.” The press, in other words, had been there through decades of state management of information until the current administration decided to slam the door.
The ban comes at a fraught time for Milei, whose popularity is now at the lowest of his presidency, according to the AtlasIntel pollster. His drive to eliminate Argentina’s chronic inflation has stalled, unemployment has climbed and the economy has contracted. Corruption cases reminiscent of the scandals that plagued the political elite that Milei vowed to overthrow have added to his challenges, with his close ally and chief of staff, Manuel Adorni, now under investigation for the misuse of public funds. Some journalists draw a line between the government’s mounting headaches and its escalating attacks on the messengers of that news. The state, meanwhile, keeps narrowing the corridor, then acting surprised when people notice who is being locked out.