ADVERTISING
Midyear Meeting
Cartagena de índias, Colombia
March 16 - 19, 2007

WHEREAS
several governments, institutions and public enterprises in the hemisphere use government advertising as a tool to reward or punish media outlets without considering any technical guidelines or mass effectiveness in the use of public funds, especially in Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Guyana, and Nicaragua

WHEREAS
various governments have chose to establish public television and radio media outlets to publish biased, partial and one-sided information, restricting private channels, frequencies, media companies and multimedia platforms, especially in Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia and Argentina

WHEREAS
the funds used to pressure private media companies belong to all citizens and not just the current government

WHEREAS
these discriminatory practices arise in most cases from the governments’ intentions to silence the political opposition and reports of corruption, abuses and lack of transparency

WHEREAS
Principle 6 of the Declaration of Chapultepec indicates that “the media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favored because of what they write or say.”
WHEREAS

Principle 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says “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 MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES

to reiterate its condemnation and repudiation of favoritism in the placement of government advertising used as a tool to reward or punish media companies and to influence their editorial and news policies

to condemn and reject the establishment of official media outlets with the purpose of restricting or silencing voices that are independent or opposed to the government of the day

to condemn those who are accomplices in these corrupt practices or who benefit directly or indirectly

to urge hemispheric governments not to use public funds to reward or punish journalists and media outlets for their editorial opinions.