Reason on Milei, the “Free Speech Champion” Who Takes His Critics to Court

by Stephan Kinsella on November 12, 2026

Jacob Mchangama has a good piece in the December 2026 issue of Reason, which is devoted entirely to Javier Milei’s Argentina: “Javier Milei, the Free Speech Champion Who Takes His Critics to Court” (Nov. 12, 2026).

Javier Milei, the Free Speech Champion Who Takes His Critics to Court

Mchangama documents how Argentina’s “libertarian” president, who told the UN that “we believe in freedom of speech for all,” has filed criminal defamation complaints against a string of journalists and commentators (several since dismissed by the courts). His government’s military security agency filed secrecy complaints against two reporters for recording in public areas of the Casa Rosada; Milei called them “DISGUSTING TRASH.” And this July he signed an emergency decree, bypassing Congress, empowering the government to deport or bar foreigners who direct “hate messages” at Argentines or “desecrate” national symbols. There’s supposedly an exception for “legitimate” criticism, but no guidance on how to tell the difference. As the government put it: “Anyone who attacks the Argentine Republic is not welcome in our country.”

So, unsurprisingly, he’s just another regime libertarian. Using the state’s criminal law to punish people for what they say about you is about as unlibertarian as it gets. And that’s setting aside that defamation law is itself illegitimate, since no one has a property right in his reputation, which exists only in the minds of others.¹ As for barring foreigners who “attack” Argentina: I guess Milei’s critics—Hoppe and other PFSers, for example—would no longer be welcome there.²

None of this is surprising, given Milei’s apparent pro-IP views. As I noted in “Milei, ‘libertarian’ IP fascist?” (March 18, 2026) and my post Classical Liberals, Libertarians, Anarchists and Others on Intellectual Property, I was initially not clear what Javier Milei’s position on IP is. As I wrote there:

I’ve heard he has read my IP writing. He seems to be skeptical; see this tweet and Yumber Vera Rojas, “A decree by Javier Milei attacks copyright,” Página|12 (June 29, 2025) (“The regulations mean that hotels and party halls do not pay Sadaic … Musicians, managers, and directors of Sadaic oppose the measure, which could be brought to court in the coming days.”); “Milei government deregulates collection of author’s royalties“: “President Javier Milei government orders deregulation of the collection of authorship royalties in Argentina, whose processing was previously obliged to pass through a society for artists but can now be transmitted without intermediation.”

But earlier this year his government scrapped a 2012 rule that had made pharmaceutical patents hard to get, and deregulation minister Federico Sturzenegger touted the move as respect for property, “including intellectual property.” Someone who thinks the state should grant monopoly privileges over ideas is not going to balk at using the state to police what others say about him. IP and defamation law are close cousins: both claim a property right in the contents of other people’s heads.

Reason‘s full December issue on Milei’s Argentina is here: