Democratización y derechos humanos en Clarín: la identidad discursiva del diario argentino (1983-1999)

Abstract

This article analyzes the coverage of issues related to human rights in the Argentine daily newspaper Clarín during the presidential terms of Raúl Alfon-sín (1983-1989) and Carlos Menem (1989-1999). This analysis is conducted through an exhaustive study of the interpretations and interpretative frames put forward by the graphic medium at key junctures such as the recuperation of democratic institutional life (1983), the trial of the military junta (1985), the passing of two laws to limit the scope of the prosecution of members of the Armed Forces—the Punto Final (1986) and Obediencia Debida (1987) laws—, the pardons (1989 and 1990) and the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the coup (1996). What specificities can be identified when examining Clarín’s journalistic treatment of human rights in the context of the recuperation democracy? How are the interpretations expressed on the daily newspaper’s pages linked to its institutional history and its previous stances on these issues? This study draws a panorama that contributes to a more nuanced understanding of processes of democratization and of how human rights topics are addressed publicly. The practices of the newspaper, as well as the demands and stances expressed on its pages, come into view not as a linear, unidirectional, or homogeneous process, but as progressing through marches and countermarches that defined a moderate and neutral stance regarding the two extremes of the Armed Forces’ interpretations and demands, on the one hand, and of the human rights movement, on the other.