The Venezuelan leader regularly threatens opposition media, but the University of La Plata is giving him an award for what it describes as his work giving people without a voice access to the airwaves and newspapers.
Chavez's government has bankrolled the growth of the Telesur network, providing a state-funded alternative to privately financed broadcast stations across Latin America.
He met Tuesday with his ally President Cristina Fernandez. She is trying to transform Argentina's communications industry through a law that would break up media monopolies and force cable TV providers to include channels run by unions, Indians and activist groups.
Up next: A Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his creative writing? Say what you will about the man -- he does have quite a fertile imagination:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thinks capitalism may be responsible for the lack of life on the planet Mars.
"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in a speech on Tuesday.