NICARAGUA

NICARAGUA WHEREAS the president of Nicaragua presented on March 1 a bill titled “Law to Protect, Dignify and Encourage the Practice of Journalism,” which sets the salary of journalists and provides other benefits WHEREAS the current bill establishes a special schedule for journalists because no profession or trade has a government-fixed minimum salary that is separate from the national minimum wage established for all workers WHEREAS enforcement of this law would reduce the news flow available to the Nicaraguan people because many news media would have to close or reduce their coverage WHEREAS the government continues to pursue a stick-and-carrot policy with the media via the allocation of government advertising and other financial means, thus contradicting Principle 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec THE IAPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS RESOLVES to ask the President of Nicaragua to withdraw the bill titled “Law to Protect, Dignify and Encourage the Practice of Journalism” to condemn the insistent government policy of punishing its critics by denying them official advertising and using these resources to reward those who support the government.