Martina Jaureguy After over four months of compulsory paid leave, Télam journalists will return to work on Wednesday — this time, in a new public news agency. Details of the new service have yet to be announced by the government.
On Monday afternoon, workers who had braved the winter freeze and summer heat to stand constant vigil outside Télam’s Buenos Aires offices lifted their four-month encampment.
“We are very happy because we showed we should never be submissive and accept things as they are,” said Tomás Eliaschev, a Télam editor and union representative with the Buenos Aires Press Union (SIPREBA by its Spanish acronym). “We can change reality, and that can only happen if we are together.”
All workers who were in Télam’s journalism operations will be transferred to Radio Televisión Argentina (RTA), a public company that controls national radio station Radio Nacional and news channel TV Pública. They will start working on the newly-created newswire on Wednesday — although they still don’t know what it will be called, Eliaschev confirmed to the Herald.
On July 1, the government transformed Télam into a state advertising and publicity agency called APESAU via a decree published in the Official Bulletin. Until then, Télam had an advertising sector that distributed payments for state advertising in private media, meaning part of its operations were already dedicated to these tasks.
Although the decree did not mention the creation of a newswire within RTA, it did say that all Télam’s resources — including staff, their news services, and other assets — would be transferred to other public media or third parties.
Workers of the advertising branch are set to start work in one of Télam’s Buenos Aires offices in the Balvanera neighborhood. The journalism branch will work from the other, in San Telmo, Télam workers have told the Herald in recent days.
Workers shared the news on social media posts on Monday afternoon, showing pictures of policemen removing the security fences from the doors of the building. “With SIPREBA, we will continue to fight for Télam to go back to being a single company, given the journalistic and advertising operations are part of a single business concept to ensure sovereignty of information and federal and plural communication,” they said in the posts.
President Javier Milei announced that he would close Télam during his speech for the opening of congressional sessions in March. Just three days later, its website was taken down, its offices fenced off, and its 700 employees sent on paid leave. Milei initially said he would privatize the organization.
While Télam has now been split up and renamed, it was not privatized. Four hundred of the original staff of 700 took voluntary redundancy, but no workers were laid off.
A four-month vigil
On March 3, close to midnight, Télam workers on the night shift found police officers setting up fences outside the building. At 1 a.m. all staff got an email informing them they were being sent on paid leave.
On March 4, the early-morning shift found that the police stationed at the door would not let them into the office. After the initial shock, workers set up a camp outside both of the buildings, taking turns to stand watch to ensure someone was always on the lookout.
With time, they turned the makeshift encampment into a temporary home, with large gazebos gifted by the oil workers’ union, deck chairs to sit in while talking and drinking mate, speakers to listen to music, and mattresses to rest. They got an electric kettle and oven. The policeman standing watch inside the building reeled out an extension lead so they could plug in, and even let workers use the restroom at night, when the shops nearby closed.
During that time, they also kept working, publishing stories and photos on the website Somos Télam, which had been created by workers in 2018 to share news and protest mass layoffs during the Mauricio Macri administration.
“We endured rain, cold, mosquitoes, and even the lies people said about us,” said Eliaschev, referring to Milei’s accusations that the agency produced Kirchnerist or Peronist propaganda. “Fighting pays off,” he said. “It’s important never to give up and to resist.”
Cover photo: Police remove security fencing from outside Télam’s offices. Source: Somos Télam