Resolution of the 71th General Assembly
Charleston, South Carolina
October 2 – 6, 2015
WHEREAS in Argentina official advertising is distributed in an arbitrary manner and the country does not have rules regulating its distribution
WHEREAS in Bolivia the government applies the discretionary placement of official advertising in news media as a means of indirect censorship
WHEREAS in Colombia under discussion is a bill in Congress to regulate official advertising that includes several rules that would limit or make difficult adequate contracting of official advertising
WHEREAS in Nicaragua official advertising has been distributed in an exclusive manner for pro-government media
WHEREAS the discriminatory placement of official advertising has been used in Ecuador an othr countries of the Americas as a tool to punish or reward media
WHEREAS the Declaration of Chapultepec states in its Principle 6 that "The media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favored because of what they write or say" and in its Principle 7 that "the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists"
THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
to condemn the conduct of discrimination in the distribution of official advertising, among other administrative measures, so as to award or punish news media and affect their editorial stance
to request the eradication of these practices and ask the governments to approve initiatives aimed at official advertising being distributed on the basis of technical, transparent and equitable criteria.
