{ "title": "Ladder: funding and ownership pressure, in South America", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/funding_and_ownership_pressure?continent=south-america", "filters": { "continent": "south-america" }, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "tactic": { "slug": "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "name": "Funding and ownership pressure", "definition": "A government uses money, or its power over owners, instead of acting against reporters directly. Examples are cutting the funds of public broadcasters, forcing the sale of an outlet, steering state advertising away from some publications, and using licence reviews or merger approvals to press an outlet's owners.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/funding_and_ownership_pressure" }, "focal_case": "US", "count": 4, "stages": [ { "stage": "pressure", "name": "Pressure", "definition": "Using state power short of prosecution to change coverage: regulatory threats, licence reviews, funding cuts, lawsuits by officials, official \"fake news\" or \"foreign agent\" labels, advertising pressure, tax audits.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1997-pe-ivcher-stripped-of-citizenship", "title": "Peru strips television station owner Baruch Ivcher of his citizenship after critical reporting", "occurred_on": "1997-07-01", "occurred_on_precision": "month", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": false, "country": "PE", "country_name": "Peru", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": null, "leader_slug": "alberto-fujimori", "leader_name": "Alberto Fujimori", "what_was_done": "In July 1997, the government of President Alberto Fujimori stripped Baruch Ivcher, the Israeli-born owner of Peru's Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2 television station, of his Peruvian citizenship, making him ineligible under Peruvian law to own the station.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "As of the Committee to Protect Journalists' report on 1999, Ivcher remained in exile and the Winter brothers retained majority control of Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "outlet_licensing" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1997-pe-ivcher-stripped-of-citizenship" }, { "slug": "2013-ecuador-communications-law-supercom", "title": "Ecuador's Organic Communication Law creates a regulator that issues hundreds of sanctions against journalists and outlets", "occurred_on": "2013-06-25", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": false, "country": "EC", "country_name": "Ecuador", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 125, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 125th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "rafael-correa", "leader_name": "Rafael Correa", "what_was_done": "Ecuador's National Assembly passed the Organic Communication Law under President Rafael Correa, creating the Superintendency of Information and Communication (SUPERCOM), a regulator that issued more than 675 sanctions against journalists and media outlets over the following four years.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2019-02-20", "outcome_note": "President Lenin Moreno's government moved to eliminate SUPERCOM in 2018, and the reform of the Communication Law was published in the Official Register on February 20, 2019; Fundamedios director Cesar Ricaurte said the surrounding legal framework nonetheless remained \"intact.\"", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "insult_and_defamation_laws" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-ecuador-communications-law-supercom" } ] }, { "stage": "silence", "name": "Silence", "definition": "Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1968-brazil-institutional-act-five-press-controls", "title": "Brazil's military government decrees the Fifth Institutional Act and moves to control the press", "occurred_on": "1968-12-13", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "silence", "focal_case": false, "country": "BR", "country_name": "Brazil", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 52, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 52nd of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "artur-costa-e-silva", "leader_name": "Artur da Costa e Silva", "what_was_done": "On the night of December 13, 1968, Brazil's military government, led by President Artur da Costa e Silva, decreed the Fifth Institutional Act, suspending constitutional guarantees and recessing the national Congress.", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "The United States Embassy assessed at the time that a full restoration of press freedom in Brazil would be a long process.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "prior_restraint", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "prior_restraint" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1968-brazil-institutional-act-five-press-controls" }, { "slug": "2024-argentina-milei-closes-telam", "title": "Milei's government shuts down Argentina's state news agency Telam", "occurred_on": "2024-03-04", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "silence", "focal_case": false, "country": "AR", "country_name": "Argentina", "continent": "south-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 98, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 98th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "javier-milei", "leader_name": "Javier Milei", "what_was_done": "President Javier Milei's government fenced off and shut down Telam, Argentina's state-owned news agency, calling it a public-relations operation for the prior Kirchnerist governments; unions and journalist groups called the closure one of the most serious blows to press freedom in decades of Argent…", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "Telam's original newsroom remained closed; the agency was later reorganized as a smaller state communications operation.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "outlet_licensing" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-argentina-milei-closes-telam" } ] } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/funding_and_ownership_pressure?continent=south-america&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/funding_and_ownership_pressure.json?continent=south-america", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/funding_and_ownership_pressure.md?continent=south-america" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }