Share

Share this

Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

The news that dominated Argentina's news agenda this week shook us politically, but also in the media. We are a media outlet that covers patriarchal and sexist violence, and the events shock us and raise questions that aren't new, and others that are. 

Starting on Sunday, increasingly disturbing information began to circulate about acts of gender-based violence suffered by Fabiola Yáñez at the hands of former President Alberto Fernández. As if the shock weren't enough, days later, in addition to crucial information, chats and images of Yáñez's face and battered body leaked from a court file circulated. 

The law states that it is essential to preserve the integrity, dignity and image of the victim of gender violence in the media (Article 3, paragraph D of Law 26.522/09). 

Distributing these images goes against all journalistic recommendations: "The emphasis of coverage should be on raising awareness and preventing gender-based violence," says the best practices guide from the Public Defender's Office, one of the few organizations standing up for equal communication. 

Many journalists, especially men, overreacted to their outrage at gender-based violence. La Nación + and TN constantly talk about the seriousness of the problem, sighing and wincing when they say "feminism," while celebrating the dismantling of gender policies.  

Perhaps they finally understood that gender-based violence is a reality, but they forgot that beyond physical violence, there is symbolic and media violence. And that's what they fuel every time they reproduce violent images, obtained from secretly filed files or leaked intelligence services. Why are certain images of dubious origin superimposed over everything else and over any journalistic process? 

Nancy Pazos on C5N asked for these sensational images to be taken down. They're still there, everywhere, with Infobae and La Nación boasting about having aired a particular photo or video, the scoops based on the patriarchal logic of turning an atrocious act into a capital one. What interests lie behind this? Perhaps journalism isn't the one to reveal this. 

Media violence

These days, the names of other women linked to the former president, as well as a video featuring one of them, have also circulated. That woman was on the front page of Clarín on Friday, along with the headlines about the abuser. The fact that many media outlets continue to upload leaked videos, blaming a woman with a highly asymmetrical position of power, exposing her, stigmatizing her, and attacking her dignity, is also media and symbolic violence.

Tiempo Argentino was one of the few outlets that didn't jump on the sensational wave, and at the urging of gender editor Maby Sosa—one of the few places where that figure is prevalent—the team decided not to reproduce the images or the video.  

That today we are all talking about gender violence as a problem that transcends the private sphere and is political is, strange as it may sound, a step forward, thanks to the persistence of the feminist movements they laugh at. We don't miss three stops; we fall short. Media coverage continues to remind us that patriarchal practices are more prevalent than ever. Without women and diverse groups in decision-making positions in the media and politics, and everywhere else, there is no equality, and there will never be. 

The carrion

As a strategy to seize power, the libertarian government turned feminism, diversity, and the fight for human rights into its main enemies, and its army of trolls has used these news stories as a way to reinforce their attacks. They conflate the womanizing, abusive Alberto Fernández with the historical struggles of the feminist movement. The mainstream media, in addition to indulging in the worst morbidity, are celebrating the former president's double standards in the same week that representatives from the La Libertad Avanza party visited repressors and referred to them as political prisoners and "ex-combatants." Everything is mixed together, and thus, everything can be justified. 

From panel discussions and social media—which supposedly reproduce the "common sense" of the "people"—things are said like, "Do you see that in the end, feminism and the fight for human rights was all a scam?" The same old story is repeated: "with my taxes," "with ours," and thus the closure of the National Institute of Statistics (INADI) (the decree was published this week), the closure of programs for women and diversity, the silencing of public media, the dismantling of culture are justified, and, of course, unemployment, inflation, hunger, and the plundering of the country are covered up. Hours before Yañez's accusations and the leaked photos and chats, the data that 54.9% of people in Argentina live below the poverty line had been published. It's impossible not to link the horror of violence with political and media opportunism. The end and the means. 

One of our articles of the week explains, in the context of the Olympics and the misgendering of Imane Khelif, how hate campaigns and gender misinformation work . Mexican journalist Danielle Cruz explains how false and/or misleading data camouflage the strategies of the new right, which target women and people of color. Behind clickbait came ragebait: overacting outrage to increase traffic, to the detriment of content quality. Ragebait exploits prejudice and discrimination to encourage engagement. Sound familiar?