Right to Know Day around the world - Argentina

Organizer: Association for Civil Rights (ADC)
Date: September 28, 2006
Event: Handout t-shirts, publishing a FOI triptyh

Description: The Buenos Aires-based Association for Civil Rights (Asociacion por los Derechos Civiles) carried out a Right to Know day campaign aimed at increasing the exercise of the right to access information. First , ADC staff delivered specially made t-shirts publicizing the Right to Know day to the staff writers at the three major daily newspapers.

These t-shirts had been designed by a leading public relations firm and were distributed with a pamphlet explaining how to submit a request to government agencies in Argentina.

Staff also went to strategic points in the city of Buenos Aires to hand out the t-shirts and pamphlets ( PDF 750 Kb).

The ADC sent 1,500 letters to local journalists, encouraging them to use their right to know as a tool in their daily work, and explaining how important their role is to promote this right in democracy. Attached to these letters, we also sent the mentioned pamphlet other ADC publications concerning freedom of information. As a result, we were contacted by different journalists that interviewed us in their programs. We gave 17 radio interviews and one in a cable TV program. We were also mentioned by 10 additional media outlets.

At the same time, ADC staff organized and gave lectures in several university level communication programs in Buenos Aires and the province of Santa Fe encouraging students to exercise their right to know. The ADC’s visibility in the national and provincial media was significant on the 28th September: Access to Information staff was interviewed several times by the press and we also published seven articles regarding the international Right-to-Know day in the most important newspapers in Argentina (Clarin, La Nacion, etc).

We also published an opinion piece article in the most read newspaper Clarin.