In the early hours of Monday, the administration of far-right President Javier Milei shut down the state news agency TELAM and completely disabled its website.
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Telam journalists and workers were "dismissed" from their duties for a period of seven days and are not allowed to enter the editorial building, which is currently surrounded by fences.
Since late Sunday, TELAM'S website has displayed the image of the Argentine national coat of arms and the caption "Website under reconstruction."
As a result, thousands of articles, photographs, and videos previously published by Telam cannot be accessed. Earlier, TELAM workers called on citizens to gather for a "hug" in front of the news agency building in Buenos Aires.
The text reads, "Massive mobilization in front of the TELAM building now."
This demonstration was scheduled for Monday at 12:30 p.m. However, security forces controlled by the Milei administration preempted the mobilization and fenced off the building.
"This is an attack on freedom of expression. They surrounded the state agency TELAM at midnight. The government is carrying out one of the worst attacks on freedom of expression in the last 40 years of democracy," the workers said in a public statement.
On Friday, Milei announced that he would close TELAM, arguing that this media outlet "had been used as a Kirchnerist propaganda agency for decades." However, he did not provide any evidence to support his claims.
"TELAM workers are going through a tough situation as the government begins to fulfill Milei's promise to close a key agency for information with a federal and plural character," journalist Victor Hugo Morales said, expressing his "total rejection of censorship and authoritarianism."