The Inter American Press Association in the Architecture of Media-Corporate Terrorism

Abstract

The press often claims for itself the status of guardian of democracy and impartial mediator of public debate. However, the historical analysis of regimes of exception in Latin America –and, in particular, in the countries of the Southern Cone– reveals a profoundly ambiguous role, if not one of direct complicity, played by significant media conglomerates in the legitimation and support of authoritarian projects. At the core of this web of relations lies the Inter American Press Association (SIP/IAPA), founded in 1943 under the strong impulse of U.S. foreign policy, in the context of the consolidation of its continental hegemony in the post-Second World War era (1939-1945). Far from functioning merely as a professional forum or as an abstract defender of press freedom, the SIP/IAPA consolidated itself as a hub for the articulation of business, political, and ideological interests, promoting agendas convergent with U.S. geopolitical logic and mobilizing the discourse of “press freedom” as a tool for legitimizing its activities and disqualifying political projects adverse to the interests of its corporate bases.

The concept of corporate media terrorism thus emerges as a tool for understanding the active role of the press in naturalizing the state of exception. Contrary to interpretations that oppose the press and authoritarianism as irreconcilable poles, this research reveals the symbiosis between media elites and regimes of exception. This symbiosis was achieved through coordinated networks of disinformation, selective censorship, and editorial synchronization—sustained by agencies such as the CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Ford Foundation, Freedom House, and other structures of ideological influence tied to U.S. imperialism.