Press

How to accredit press at an event in Argentina: requests, validation and press areas

By SOMOS DER · October 30, 2026 · 7 min read

Press accreditation has two separate stages: first a request is made and approved, then the journalist registers. The journalist fills in a request with their outlet and coverage plan, your press lead checks it and answers every request, and only approved people receive a registration link reserved for press, which gives them their QR code and the permissions of their area. Quotas, criteria and areas are decided before the request form opens. This guide covers that process for any event in Argentina, from a sports final to a congress or a festival, when the brand or agency running it is based abroad and has to deal with both local and international media.

Why press cannot go through general registration

The most common mistake is to treat press as one more attendee with a checkbox that says "I am a journalist". Anyone can tick that box: someone with a blog, an account with many followers, someone who wants a free ticket or a spot near the stage. On the day, the press area fills with people who will not publish anything, while the photographer from a national daily cannot find a place.

The fix is that the press category is not chosen, it is granted. That requires an approval step that general registration does not have. For a team organizing from another country, it also keeps the decision in the hands of whoever knows the local media landscape, usually your press office or PR partner in Argentina, instead of the person scanning at the door.

Step 1: write down criteria, quotas and areas first

Before the request form goes live, three things should be written and agreed between the brand, the agency and the local press lead:

• Who qualifies. Print, digital, radio, TV, news agencies, foreign correspondents, freelancers with a commission, content creators. If creators are allowed, give them a separate process.
• How many per outlet. A fixed quota, for example one reporter and one photographer, and who can approve exceptions.
• What they can access. Press room, photographers' pit, mixed zone or interview area, press conference. Each can have different rules for reporters, photographers and camera crews.

The Public Venue Credentialing Guide from CISA, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, sets this as a general rule for any credential: "develop written access criteria for each controlled area to support the approval or denial process". The same guide recommends a maximum number of credentials per group, with exceptions granted only in special circumstances. It is written for guests, but it fits press quotas.

Step 2: a request form, not a registration form

The press form is a request. It can be a simple form on your event website or an email with a fixed template. What matters is what it asks for:

• Name, email and phone number for each person.
• Outlet, section or programme, country, and role (reporter, photographer, camera, presenter).
• Backing from the outlet: an institutional email or an editor's contact.
• Links to previous coverage signed by the person.
• What they plan to cover and what they need (interviews, connectivity, power, a camera position).
• The accreditation terms, to accept: what it allows, what it does not, and that it can be withdrawn.

The CISA guide says the request form "should include the recipient's personal information as well as the credential's function, areas of access, timeframe, and terms and conditions", and that it should "clearly state the penalties for violations". It lists media among those who should submit requests electronically before the event, and recommends making sure credential holders know credentials "can be revoked at any time" if the terms are violated.

Because a press list is a personal database, Argentina's Law 25,326 applies even if your company is abroad. Article 4 requires data to be "adecuados, pertinentes y no excesivos" (adequate, relevant and not excessive) for the purpose, and says it cannot be used "para finalidades distintas o incompatibles" (for different or incompatible purposes). Article 6 requires telling people what the data is for and who is responsible for it. Ask only what you need to validate the request, and do not reuse the list for a newsletter without consent. More in attendee data in Argentina.

Step 3: validate the outlet and answer everyone

With the requests in hand, the press lead goes through them one by one: does the outlet exist and publish, has the person signed work there or does an editor vouch for them, does the request fit the quota. For freelancers, is there a commission from a specific publication. For foreign media, the same checks apply; an international correspondent is usually easy to verify through published bylines.

Then answer every request, approved or not. CISA recommends notifying each applicant of the outcome and adds that "a formal justification for disapproval should be provided as well". A journalist who never got an answer and finds out at the door leaves with a bad story to tell.

Step 4: the press link goes only to approved requests

This is where PASE comes in. Each attendee type has its own registration link, and the press link is sent only to approved journalists, in the confirmation email. Whoever registers through it is recorded as press without being able to choose anything else, and receives by email a unique QR code and the badge as a PDF. If they mistype a common email domain, the form flags it before they finish, and if they lose the email they can recover their pass from the registration page.

For international media, the registration page and the QR email work in Spanish and English: they follow the browser language, and adding ?lang=en to the link forces English. There is no Portuguese version.

Do not publish the press link or send it to a mailing list. Send it person by person, and before the event compare the list of press registrations against the approved list, in case someone forwarded it. If you want to separate reporters from photographers, because the pit is for photographers only, use two attendee types with a link each.

Step 5: on the day, a press desk and controlled areas

Give press its own desk or entrance, with someone from the press team next to the scanner operator. Journalists need to know where the press room is, when the conference starts and who to ask for interviews; the person scanning cannot answer that.

PASE validates online: at the door each scan returns valid, duplicate or not authorized on the spot. In the permission matrix you mark which attendee type can enter which area, so someone with a general pass who tries the press room gets not authorized. Set inner areas such as the press room or the interview zone to allow re-entry, because journalists go in and out all day. Each controlled area is a check-in point: Base includes 1, Pro up to 4 and Enterprise unlimited.

If press has to be identifiable at a distance, print badges at the desk. CISA recommends credentials that are "readily visible" and policies "that prohibit the sharing of images of credentials on social media". Put that in your terms: it is the first thing a happy photographer does.

Step 6: walk ins and the press report

Someone always arrives without accreditation. The operator does not decide: they refer the person to the press lead. If the written criteria allow it and the outlet can be checked on the spot, the press lead registers them manually in PASE as press. If not, they enter as general public if the event allows it, or they do not enter. The answer comes from the criteria, not from who insists the most.

After the event, the PASE report splits attendance by attendee type, so you know how many approved journalists actually came. Cross it with the coverage you received or found: that is the number your client or headquarters will ask for, and it is what sets next year's quotas.

Press is not a box people tick. It is a category you approve, and the registration link arrives after the approval, never before.

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