Argentina

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Resolution of the 62nd General Assembly Mexico City, Mexico September 29 – October 3, 2006 WHEREAS the press, as a social institution, is experiencing troubles caused by a political culture that has not managed to rid itself of certain features of authoritarianism, and, more than three years after becoming president, Néstor Kirchner has shown that he cannot adjust to an independent press, since opinions and news that are critical of his administration often end in confrontations WHEREAS this climate of confronting and discrediting the media and journalists caused by the president encourages other officials and violent social groups that attack the press, as happened recently with journalists Joaquín Morales Solá of La Nación, and Jorge Fontevecchia of Editorial Perfil, who have received anonymous threats, and Luis Majul, Daniel Santoro and Bartolomé Mitre whose e-mail accounts were intercepted WHEREAS there are serious restrictions on access to public information, and the Executive Branch sticks to a policy of only providing information about government policies and activities at public functions and is reluctant to hold press conferences and assist journalists and media outlets WHEREAS in March 2003 the regional daily Río Negro submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court about discrimination in the placement of advertising by the government of Neuquén following articles about alleged bribes of government officials, and in September of this year Attorney General Esteban Righi rejected this appeal, saying, there are no regulations “for the courts to regulate” advertising. WHEREAS demonstrators intimidated media outlets, such as La Nación of Buenos Aires WHEREAS Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press” THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to demand that the government respect the republican principle of providing information about all of its actions in the face of the Executive Branch’s failure to hold press conferences and respond to journalists’ questions and urge the government to show and cultivate respect and consideration to media outlets and journalists, avoiding excessive criticism and accusations, which harm the fluid communication that should exist among the government, the governed and the media to exhort the government to adopt the means necessary to investigate promptly the threats to journalists Joaquín Morales Solá and Jorge Fontevecchia, so those responsible are punished with the full weight of the law, which could prevent similar cases from occurring to promote full institutional validity to give prestige in every way to democratic life, the division of powers, an independent judiciary and the complete exercise of press freedom to protest concrete events of exclusion of government advertising to Editorial Perfil, which publishes the magazine Noticias and the weekly Perfil, and other cases concerning newspapers in the provinces to encourage the government to support methods to regulate distribution of advertising and access to public information with clear and objective criteria to express profound concern about the ruling by the national attorney general against the daily Río Negro and express confidence that the decision of the Supreme Court will safeguard the fundamental principle of freedom of information against any attempt to violate it.

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