Argentina II

WHEREAS the official campaign against Papel Prensa, the primary producer of newsprint for Argentine newspapers, has deepened through incessant administrative and judicial harassment of the company and its private shareholders, which has come to include scenes of violence brought on by public servants; and WHEREAS this campaign has been accompanied by a strong effort to undermine the newspapers that share its ownership, with threats against their managers; and WHEREAS such accusations have taken the form of an official document, issued by Government House and written with the clear intention of criminalizing the purchase of the company; and WHEREAS the contents of that document has been disproven through a series of evidentiary documents, testimonies of people involved at the time, and legal depositions given not only by shareholders of Papel Prensa but by other Argentine public figures; and WHEREAS in spite of the fact that newsprint is marketed in Argentina under conditions of free competition with no import duties, and that there exists another factory that is not producing today, government efforts have been focused exclusively on Papel Prensa; WHEREAS making clear that behind the campaign is an interest of state control of the production and marketing of newsprint for the newspapers, the government has proposed a bill in the legislature that declares it of “public interest” and attempts to regulate this market, unaware of the constitutional prohibitions and international treaties that prevent state control of newspaper production supplies; WHEREAS the matter has worsened with a recent order from the Chamber of Deputies, approved by officials and some allies, of a statist and interventionist character, that would oblige the member newspapers to get rid of their shares and would set up an authority of a political nature to control the production and sale of paper; and WHEREAS the Constitution of the Argentine Republic prohibits the passing of press laws and that the Pact of San José de Costa Rica prohibits direct or indirect official control of newspaper supplies; WHEREAS the Declaration of Chapultepec states in its article 5 that “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.” 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 IAPAGENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to call upon Argentine authorities to cease their campaign of administrative and other forms of harassment against Papel Prensa and its shareholders, in order to allow normal operations of the company that supplies a majority of Argentine newspapers; to alert both the Executive and Legislative Branches of the government as to what intervention in the newsprint market implies, since, as been shown in the past, official control on this basic supply may be used as an element of indirect pressure over the press; to urge public powers in Argentina to maintain the policy of free production, import, and marketing of paper, which for many long years has been the norm in Argentina, thus preventing state intervention in private companies.