The ultra-liberal government of President Javier Miley announced on Monday that it would conduct an audit of Argentina’s main state media – radio, television and agencies – to assess a plan of “reformulation, restructuring and action”, although potential privatization “has yet to be decided”. AFP reports.

The government issued a decree appointing two auditors, including lawyer Diego Martín Chajer, a former director of the multimedia group Grupo America, to effectively control half a dozen media outlets, including the Telam agency, Radio y Television Argentina and the educational portal Educ. .ar.

The two auditors, appointed for a one-year renewable term, will together have “the powers that the articles of association of the respective companies confer on the board of directors and its president,” the decree said.

List of 41 enterprises to be privatized

Their role will consist in “drawing up a plan of reform, adaptation and action”, in “assessing and changing the status of the organization’s personnel” and making changes “in the system of managing funds, by increasing or decreasing budget sections”.

Public media were targeted by Milli, who called some of them “propaganda mechanisms”, referring in particular to public television.

The public broadcaster (about 2,300 employees) and the Telam agency (800) have been included in a list of 41 companies to be privatized in a massive deregulatory reform project known as the “Omnibus Law” currently before parliament.

However, this list has been narrowed down and remains up for discussion as we discuss the details of the articles in the coming days.

Asked last week about the future of state-owned media and their staff, whether they would be privatized, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said “it has not yet been decided” and that the desired reorganization of state-owned companies “will take a long time. “.

Regarding the personnel, he noted that both in the state administration and in the public media, “those who work well have nothing to worry about.”