Strong crossing between Santiago Cafiero and Jorge Lanata: ADEPA and FOPEA repudiated the foreign minister's insult to journalist

Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero and journalist Jorge Lanata starred this Friday in a strong controversy that included an insult in English by the official towards the radio host Mitre. Hours later, the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA) and the Association of Argentine Journalism Entities (ADEPA) spoke out publicly and repudiated the statements of the former chief of staff.

“We regret the unusual attitude of Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, who responded with an insult to a criticism by journalist Jorge Lanata, during an interview on Urbana Play radio. The Foreign Minister aggrieved the journalist by using an English term,” ADEPA said in a first post.

The entity then completed the small Twitter thread by means of a complementary post. “We reiterate that tolerance of scrutiny and journalistic criticism by officials is a sign of respect for freedom of the press and health in public debate,” they concluded.

“The Argentine Journalism Forum stands in solidarity with journalist Jorge Lanata and repudiates the grievances made by Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero,” FOPEA said, also through its official social networks. The first post was accompanied by the hashtag #FOPEALibertadDeExpresión.

In this regard, they also explained the situation: “During an interview with Urbana Play, the Foreign Minister insulted Radio Mitre's colleague with a phrase in English, whose translation represents a personal offense.”

“FOPEA understands that journalism is exposed to criticism and that it must be constantly questioned to raise the quality of professional work,” the organization continued. However, such discrepancy or discomfort over an opinion cannot be reduced to insults and personal grievances.”

Finally, they added: “Much less, when it comes to civil servants. It is they who must set the example of respect for freedom of expression.”

To understand the root of the conflict, we must go back to the recent trip that Alberto Fernández's government minister made to the Middle East to seek investment. In this context, he was invited to an exhibition in Dubai where he gave a speech in English that was criticized on social networks for the difficulties the minister showed with pronunciation (video 1). Lanata addressed the laughing situation in his program and also highlighted the Chancellor's mistakes to express himself in English.

This Friday, Cafiero was consulted on the subject by journalist María O Donnell on Urbana Play radio. “I had a speech in Spanish and when I arrived they told me that there was no simultaneous translation and I did it in English because it was part of being humble; our diplomatic mission is not to please those who have broken the country with the pronunciation,” he replied.

The former Chief of Staff said he is comfortable with his level of English and uses the language in most meetings he participates in, without a translator. To demonstrate his knowledge, Cafiero made a joke and greeted his interlocutor in English at the end of the interview. And in that context he surprised with a slang insult: “Lanata said stupid things about me, i think Lanata is a dickhead” (in Spanish, Lanata said stupid things about me, I think Lanata is a jerk). The word “dickhead” has other meanings: jerk, imbecile and head of a penis.

As expected, Lanata picked up the glove. At 10 o'clock, in his usual show with Eduardo Feinmann - who ironically dressed as a military man because of the start of the war against inflation - he referred to Cafiero's sayings and redoubled his criticism.

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