Argentina I

WHEREAS the Argentine government has widened the use of its discretionary powers, using legal tools, administrative measures and the actions of public officials to reward media editorially supportive and punish those that maintain their independence from the official line WHEREAS two years after its enactment the Law on Audiovisual Communication Services, which has been partially suspended by the courts for restricting constitutional rights, has been applied based on selective criteria WHEREAS in this regard application of the law is done differently for media close to the government WHEREAS the independent media have complained of being discriminated against, starting with proceedings being taken against them over administrative questions with the objective of ordering the expiration of their operating licenses or allowing their takeover WHEREAS in the same way, and as has been occurring for the past eight years, official advertising has increased and continues to benefit the media that are not critical of the government and without taking technical criteria into consideration 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 67 IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to urge the government to establish technical criteria in its relationship with the news media for distribution of official advertising to ask the authorities applying the Law on Audiovisual Communication to adopt and follow objective criteria in carrying out their responsibilities.