By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Jul 20 2000 (IPS)

The media, especially investigative journalism programmes on TV, are seen by the Argentine public as the most effective weapon today against corruption, while the judiciary’s already battered image continues to slide.

In its latest annual report, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) revealed that Latin Americans in general put little stock in their justice systems. In that sense, Argentina headed the list of 19 countries, followed by Peru, Mexico and Bolivia. Uruguay ranked at the bottom, with the most highly-respected judiciary.

According to a survey by the New Majority Centre of Studies in Argentina, just nine percent of respondents said they held a “positive image” of the judiciary — a proportion similar to those who said they had a positive image of trade unions, whose credibility also took a nosedive in the past decade.

At the other extreme figure the Catholic Church and the media, with 56 and 51 percent of respondents, respectively, saying they held a positive image of those institutions. The poll showed that although the media were accused of “sensationalism,” the public trusted them more than institutions of the state.

The institution which has lost the most prestige in the past decade was the judiciary, which is criticised as ineffective, inefficient and as suffering from serious ethical shortcomings, said the president of Gallup Argentina, Marita Carball.

“Nine of every 10 Argentines do not feel protected by the justice system,” said the pollster.

The judiciary has been discredited by dishonest judges and cases of corruption, many of which are revealed by the media, according to the Gallup survey.

The study also found that the public believed the justice system was too heavily influenced by politics and overly dependent on the executive and legislative branches, that there was excessive delay and red tape in dispensing justice — partly due to a shortage of economic and technological resources — and that there were flaws in the process of selecting judges.

One case mentioned by the press was that of a woman who has been waiting since 1985 for someone to be found responsible for a fire in a nursing home in which her mother and 77 other people died. The case was closed without anyone brought to justice.

Not even the employees of the justice system believe in it. A study carried out this year by the University of Buenos Aires found that only three percent of legal system functionaries believe the judiciary is “well-organised,” while 77 percent admitted that ethical conduct was not encouraged there.

Given that situation, demands for justice in Argentina have become more and more “media-fied,” say experts in social communication. People seeking justice increasingly take their cases to TV, either openly or in anonymity, through the use of hidden cameras.

Most journalistic programmes and all cable TV news stations have set up hot-lines for callers to report cases they believe should be investigated, and teams of journalists are sent with cameras and disguises to “gather evidence” to take to the courts.

A TV-viewer can quickly get an idea of just why the judiciary’s image is so poor, and how the media have gained respect for their apparently effective efforts at making sure justice is dispensed.

In the first week of July, the case of a judge suspected of killing his 15-year-old daughter practically monopolised the crime section of newscasts.

The judge refused to renounce his immunity from prosecution in order to keep from being thrown into prison with his wife. The office of the public prosecutor already warned — through another TV programme — that if he was stripped of his immunity, the judge would have to remain in prison until his role in the case was clarified.

Meanwhile, a former judge who was at large but was eventually captured in Brazil was prosecuted in connection with serious irregularities in the probe that led to the arrest — and later release — of Guillermo Coppola, football legend Diego Maradona’s agent, on drug possession charges.

Another judge denied allegations that he had demanded payment from a sports communication company in order to rule in its favour, but a hidden camera taped the conversation in which he extorted the company.

Investigative journalism, which seems to have emerged as competition to, or as a sort of executive arm for the justice system, has not only turned up corrupt judges. Inquiries have spurred the courts into action, even in cases of organised criminal bands that have enjoyed impunity for years.

The hidden camera has become the chief tool used by a TV programme, “Telenoche Investigates”, which went on the air in June, after special investigations for the nightly news programme Telenoche won especially high ratings.

The first episode of the programme showed recordings in which one of the top officials of the construction workers’ labour union blackmailed companies in the construction business.

The cases have spent years languishing in the courts. The victims had even reported attempts on their lives and attacks on their homes, as well as police complicity.

But in the wake of the Telenoche investigation, the extortionist was prosecuted and kicked out of the union. The focus has now shifted to the secretary-general of the union, who is also a parliamentary deputy.

In another episode, “Telenoche Investigates” sent journalists under false identities into a locale where Paraguayan girls were held captive and forced to work as prostitutes. One of the men involved in the racket detailed the entire business, from the trafficking of minors to the sex trade, unaware that he was being filmed.

Before the programme was aired, the office of the public prosecutor, with the videotaped evidence, arrested the man who was filmed, as well as others involved, and shut down the business establishment, which operated — according to the owner himself — thanks to monthly payments of enormous sums of money to the police and city authorities.

“We want to go as high up as possible in the pyramid,” commented one of the members of the journalistic team, who dressed up as a Russian “madam” to enter the brothel after failing in her attempt to pass herself off as a clothing vendor, and after male members of the team posing as potential clients failed to obtain information.

Meanwhile, the widespread belief that the justice system solely benefits the rich and powerful is only relative in this Southern Cone country, where the administration of justice is characterised at all levels by excessive delays, high costs and lack of impartiality on the part of many judges.

A study carried out by the Forum of Studies on the Administration of Justice among 200 of the biggest companies operating in Argentina found that 88 percent of those interviewed believed the justice system functioned poorly or only so-so.

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