WHEREAS that Declaration adds that "Prior conditioning of expressions, such as truthfulness, timeliness or impartiality is incompatible with the right to freedom of expression recognized in international instruments"
WHEREAS the IACHR considers as an attack upon freedom of expression the arbitrary and discriminatory assignment of official advertising with the objective of pressuring and punishing or awarding and privileging journalists and media based on their informational stances
WHEREAS valid are the civil and political rights of the Political Constitution of Bolivia that guarantee the right to freedom of expression, of thought and of opinion
WHEREAS the indpendent journalistic work of the hundred-year-old newspaper El Diario is at risk of being silenced by the government through tax pressures
WHEREAS the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes in its Articles 5 and 7 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" and that "The granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists"
THE 75th IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
to demand of the government of Bolivia, the Legislative Branch and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) an amendment of the laws and electoral norms that impose prior censorship and that they be adjusted to the international conventions and the Political Constitution of the State itself
to express to the TSE that it attend to the calls of press organizations and civil rights defenders that request an immediate modification of administrative norms which, in place of restricting access by citizens to information of collective interest, that they be fully in favor of an election of governors and legislators in an atmosphere of transparency
to ratify the call to the Bolivian government to administer the public resources employed in official advertising with an ample criterion, excluding all discriminatory and discretional form in the choice of media
to call upon those in government to respect the work of journalists and media that denounce criminal actions and misappropriation of public resources, in application of international norms that protect the work of the press
to alert the international community to an attempt to use the tax service as a mechanism of persecution of the independent newspaper El Diario which could end up with the shutdown of or intervention in the media outlet
to urge the government to exclude the newspaper El Diario and other media from any kind of discriminatory treatment due to their editorial stance and independence.
