Pope Francis expressed his support this Monday for the workers of the Argentine news agency Télam, whose closure was announced by President Javier Milei on March 1, and stated that he prays for all of them.
“Sometimes I get a little worried, in communication, when I see a situation of insecurity. I think of the Télam workers, for example”, expressed the Argentine Pope in a fragment of a video published by the agency’s former president, Bernarda Llorente, on her account on the X platform.
Afterwards, the highest authority of the Catholic Church reflected: “As if we didn’t see the future and we didn’t know for sure how the path will continue” and concluded: “I pray for the workers, who find themselves in this nebulous situation”.
Pope Francis: “I think of the workers of Telam.”#somemostelam pic.twitter.com/VJkFw5SNXk
— Bernarda Llorente (@bernardallorent) April 8, 2024
On the night of March 1st, in a message before the Legislative Assembly with which he inaugurated a new period of ordinary sessions in Congress, President Milei ratified – on national television – his intention to close Télam and argued that it was used “during the last decades as a Kirchnerist advertising agency.”
At midnight on Sunday, the 3rd, the two Télam headquarters in the city of Buenos Aires were surrounded and police were positioned at the entrances to prevent workers from entering.
Simultaneously, the agency’s website (www.telam.com.ar) was suspended and its cover replaced with the message: “Page under reconstruction. The page you are trying to view is under reconstruction”, along with an image of the national coat of arms.
From that moment on, workers were unable to access the system where texts and photos are managed. Not even subscribers could access the content anymore: the access platform to the various services provided by the agency – including its valuable archive – was blocked.
As of this Monday, the 8th, the official plan is not known and no instrument or legal rule has been published that makes the closure of the public body official.
To continue providing independent and quality news, agency employees created the Somos Télam website.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
