Economic Limitations

ECONOMIC LIMITATIONS WHEREAS following a series of acquisitions, mergers and combinations of newsprint producing companies there has been a constant increase in the price, along with an apparent increase in the demand WHEREAS newsprint is the main raw material that is indispensable for the printing of newspapers WHEREAS the price of newsprint is set in dollars which is an additional cost in most Latin American countries because it is constantly increasing in value WHEREAS if this trend continues, newspapers’ financial health will be seriously affected, which could threaten the survival of small and medium-size newspapers which do not have the same negotiating strength as the large ones, which could directly threaten the diversity of opinions and press freedom itself WHEREAS Principle 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states that “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 express its concern about the continual increase in the price of newsprint and ask the manufacturers to reconsider their price-setting policies for this raw material for newspapers.