Argentina I

Aa
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WHEREAS considering that the Argentine government is continuing to further its model of arbitrary placement of official advertising, ignoring rulings by the Supreme Court that require it do so respecting objective and reasonable distribution guidelines so as not to go against freedom of expression WHEREAS there continues to be a multiplication of public monies assigned to this purpose, reaching a level never seen before in the market, its utilization as a tool of indirect censorship, through a system of rewards and punishments WHEREAS there continues to increase a multi-million-dollar gap between what media supporting the government receive and what is received by the independent media, who are punished with being shut out from the placement of official advertising or given only insignificant amounts WHEREAS there has been an increase recently in a phenomenon of enormous concern – official pressures on privately-owned companies not to publish advertisements in independent media, with the objective of depriving these of their natural, legitimate and vital means of survival WHEREAS said pressures have translated into an official order – clearly illegal and therefore unwritten – to various categories of advertisers to refrain from publishing advertisements beginning in the first week of February, with the excuse that there is price control, a contradictory assertion since advertising increases competition through the offers and benefits to the consumer WHEREAS despite the fact that this boycott amounts to a violation of the laws on defense of competition and consumers several companies gave in to the unprecedented official pressure and simultaneously stopped publishing advertisements beginning on February 8, causing enormous damage to the sustainability of news companies and which in the future could put their very existence at risk WHEREAS as well as amounting to a case of censorship and a violation of freedom of expression the ban on publishing ads goes against the people’s fundamental rights, such as the right to information, to transparency regarding consumption, competition and protection as consumers WHEREAS these attitudes openly and directly violate the Pact of San José, Costa Rica, and the Declaration of Chapultepec WHEREAS Principle 1 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states “No people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press. The exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant, it is an inalienable right of the people” THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES to urge the Argentine government to cease its discriminatory practices regarding the placement of official advertising, respecting objective and equitable criteria and not using public resources as a means of awarding and punishing to reiterate to the Argentine Congress the need to enact a law that, in line with international standards, regulates the placement of official advertising to emphatically repudiate the pressure by the Executive Branch on private sector advertisers to abstain from advertising in independent media to express its great concern because after learning of those pressures several companies simultaneously stopped publishing their advertisements in various Argentine media, seriously compromising the validity of these to deplore and stress the attitude of companies which, through fear or other means, become accomplices to these attacks against freedom of the press and the right of the citizen to free expression to call on privately-owned companies to be firm and in accordance with the principles of freedom of expression and free competition, resisting being participants in actions at odds with these principles that come from those who want to limit the free flow of information and the existence of independent media. rights.

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