Argentina - Media

In 1998 there were 7.5 million mainline telephones in the nationalized system, over half of which were in Buenos Aires and its environs. An additional 3 million cellular phones are in use, according to 1999 figures. Internal telegraph facilities and some international circuits to nearby countries are wholly government operated.

As of 1999 there were 260 AM and an unspecified number of unlicensed FM radio stations. There were 42 television stations the same year stations. Many of the stations are privately owned. In 2000, there were 681 radios and 293 television sets for every 1,000 people. The same year, there were 33 Internet service providers, serving 3.88 million subscribers by 2001.

Buenos Aires is one of the principal editorial centers of the Spanish-speaking world, with more than 50 publishing houses in the 1980s and 1990s. Numerous literary magazines and reviews, as well as books, are published. Press coverage in Argentina is one of the most thorough in the hemisphere. Four news agencies (Noticias Argentinas, TELAM, Diarios y Noticias, and Interdiarios) were operating in 1995, and the major international news services were also represented. Two of the great dailies of Buenos Aires, La Nación and La Prensa, enjoy international reputations, and La Prensa is probably the most famous newspaper in Latin America.

Throughout the early days of the Perón regime, La Prensa battled the dictatorship, but it was finally taken over forcibly by Perón and given to the CGT, the dictator's central labor organization. The provisional government of Gen. Eduardo Lonardi returned La Prensa to its rightful owner, Alberto Gainza Paz, and it resumed publication in February 1956. In 1969, the Onganía government imposed siege regulations on the press, and in August of that year, two weekly papers were closed down. After the 1976 coup, no formal censorship was introduced, but some journalists were arrested for "subversive" articles. With the restoration of democratic government, harassment of the media stopped.

The largest dailies, with their estimated daily circulation figures in 2002, are listed in the following table:

	CIRCULATION
BUENOS AIRES
La Nación	630,000
Clarín	560,000
Pagina 12	280,000
Diario Popular	145,000
Tiempo Argentino	75,000
El Cronista	65,000
PROVINCES
La Voz del Interior (Córdoba)	95,000
La Gaceta (Tucumán)	70,000
El Día (La Plata)	54,868
El Litoral (Santa Fe)	40,000

The Sunday edition of the Clarin has a circulation of 1 million copies. The Cronica in Buenos Aires publishes both a morning and evening edition Monday through Saturday with morning circulation at 330,000 and evening circulation at 190,000. Its Sunday circulation is 450,000.