GOVERNMENT ADVERTISING

Aa
$.-
WHEREAS incidents of discrimination in the placement of government advertising continue to occur in Argentina, Aruba, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela WHEREAS these discriminatory practices are used to reward or punish media outlets and to influence their editorial decisions and reporting policies, and are therefore tantamount to corruption WHEREAS the Argentine Supreme Court ruled on September 5, 2007, against the Neuquén provincial government and Governor Jorge Sobisch for withdrawing advertising from Río Negro newspaper; the ruling bars the government from discriminating against media outlets by arbitrarily eliminating or reducing the placement of government advertising, and holds that the government “may not manipulate advertising by granting it to or withdrawing it from certain media outlets on a discriminatory basis” and that furthermore it may not “use advertising as an indirect means of compromising freedom of speech” WHEREAS Principle 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “Tariff and exchange policies, licenses for the importation of paper or news-gathering equipment, the assigning of radio and television frequencies and the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists” THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to reiterate its condemnation and repudiation of all discriminatory, non-objective use of government advertising, as well as any other restrictive measures of an economic or administrative nature to stress the importance that this court ruling in Argentina against discrimination in the placement of government advertising has for the Americas as a legal precedent that should be emulated in countries where this corrupt practice exists in clear violation of press freedom.

Share

0