(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 24 October 2006 IAPA press release: IAPA blasts withdrawal of official advertising from Argentine paper MIAMI, Florida (October 24, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at what it called a reprisal and an act of discrimination against the Misiones, Argentina, newspaper El Territorio after […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 24 October 2006 IAPA press release:
IAPA blasts withdrawal of official advertising from Argentine paper
MIAMI, Florida (October 24, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at what it called a reprisal and an act of discrimination against the Misiones, Argentina, newspaper El Territorio after the provincial government withdrew all official advertising from it.
The hemispheric free-press organization had dealt in depth at its recent annual meeting in Mexico City with the issue of the arbitrary placement of official advertising to reward or punish news media and individual journalists for what they report and concluded that in the case of Argentina it continued to be “a very serious problem . . . where the government maintains its policy of using public resources to ‘reward’ supportive media and ‘punish’ those that are critical or independent.” It said other countries where the practice also existed were Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, sent a note to Misiones Governor Carlos Eduardo Rovira expressing the IAPA’s concern at what he called the arbitrary action taken against El Territorio, one of the largest-circulation newspapers in the northwestern Argentine province.
Following is the full text:
“Mr. Governor.
“On behalf of more than 1,300 publications belonging to the Inter American Press Association this is to express our concern at the complaint by the newspaper El Territorio of discrimination in the placement of official advertising that is demonstrated by the sudden suspension of public announcements in that news media outlet, in an apparent reprisal for its editorial policy.
“According to the complaint made to the IAPA, El Territorio on March 26 published a special report on the politicization of the justice system in Misiones province. Following the dissemination in subsequent months of other articles, interviews and editorials on the lack of independence in the judiciary, the government suddenly withdrew all official advertising with effect from May 15 and it failed to pay for already-published announcements, and government enterprises stopped advertising in El Territorio.
“This arbitrary action was also extended to other companies owned by the newspaper’s publishing group (Urbi S.A., Touché S.A. and Triade S.A.), to whom payment of outstanding accounts was stopped and contracts cancelled without apparent reason. We have also learned of threats of legal action against executives of the newspaper.
“Mr. Governor, we repudiate this discriminatory action against the newspaper, which puts tolerance of freedom of the press in Misiones in doubt. We refer to the Declaration of Chapultepec, a 10-point document on press freedom and freedom of expression that should apply in a democratic society whose principle number 7 declares, ‘the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists.’
“The arbitrary placement of official advertising is an issue of priority for our organization, which in fact took up the matter during our recent General Assembly held September 29 to October 3 in Mexico City, in which we adopted a resolution on ‘Discrimination in Official Advertising and Corruption,’ which we enclose herewith.”
