H.E. Eduardo Alberto Duhalde
President of the Republic
General Secretariat to the Presidency
Balcarce 50
1064 Buenos Aires
Argentina

Fax: (+ 5411) 4344-3789

Vienna, 20 December 2002

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, wishes to express its deep concern over the detention of Ernestina Herrera de Noble, director of the Clarín media group.

According to information before IPI, Herrera de Noble, whose Clarín group owns the country’s largest newspaper, was arrested on 17 December over allegations that she illegally adopted two children of victims of the last military regime in 1976. A federal judge ordered the arrest in response to a complaint filed by the human rights group, Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (“Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo”).

The charges could include “illegal child-snatching, forgery of public documents and tampering with identity.” The judge also ordered blood samples for DNA testing from Herrera de Noble’s children, now aged 26, who have consistently refused to have blood taken for testing. According to a lawyer for Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, the court complaint had been filed “years ago” and she did not know what had led the judge to issue the arrest warrant.

Without going into the legal aspects of the case, IPI would like to urge Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure that due process of law be given and that the case is resolved with the utmost swiftness in order to avoid any suspicions that political or personal motivations may be at play.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director