PLEASE, DISREGARD THE PREVIOUS ENGLISH VERSION OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.
PLEASE, DISREGARD THE PREVIOUS ENGLISH VERSION OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.
IAPA condemns Guyana government action withholding advertising from local newspaper
MIAMI, Florida (January 24, 2007)The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern that the administration of President Jagdeo of Guyana has joined the list of governments that manipulate placement of advertising to punish critical or independent new media. The government ordered the suspension of publication of official announcements in the Stabroek News, the countrys leading newspaper.
IAPA President Rafael Molina and the chairman of the organizations Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, said, To use taxpayers money to punish or reward media is plane and simple corruption. They recalled a resolution adopted by the IAPA at its annual meeting in Mexico City, Mexico, last October in which the organization resolved to reiterate its condemnation and repudiation of any discriminatory use of government advertising that lacks an objective basis, as well as other financial and administrative measures that may be used as a tool to reward or punish the media and influence their editorial decisions and reporting.
Since November, Stabroek News, an independent newspaper critical of Jagdeos administration, has seen a drop in revenues from official advertising. The Government Information Agency (GINA) is believed to have received orders from Nanda Gopaul, a senior official in the Guyanese Presidency, to suspend almost all official advertising in the Stabroek News, a decision said to be based on commercial considerations, although it is clear, given the newspapers editorial stance, that this is a case of reprisal for that position, the IAPA learned.
Molina, editor of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, newspaper El Día, and Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, called on the Guyanese president to employ technical criteria in deciding placement of official advertising. They expressed hope that the government would change its position and not use advertising in a manner contrary to the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, signed by President Jagdeo on May 24, 2002, in an official ceremony during an IAPA delegations visit to his South American country.
In recent months the IAPA has denounced, among others, the governments of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela for employing this discriminatory practice.
Following is the full text of the resolution on Discrimination in Official Advertising and Corruption, adopted by the IAPA in Mexico City, Mexico, on October 3, 2006:
WHEREAS
various governments, government institutions, and state-owned companies in the hemisphere use their advertising as a tool to reward or punish the media, disregarding any technical or cost-efficient criteria for the allocation of public funds
WHEREAS
similar criteria lacking any objective basis are sometimes used to extend loans or other financial or administrative benefits
WHEREAS
the funds thus mismanaged belong to the people
WHEREAS
these discriminatory practices are in many cases a governmental response to complaints or reports of corruption
WHEREAS
Principle 6 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states 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 states that the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
to reiterate its condemnation and repudiation of any discriminatory use of government advertising that lacks an objective basis, as well as other financial and administrative measures that may be used as a tool to reward or punish the media and influence their editorial decisions and reporting
to persistently denounce such practices as grave attacks on press freedom and as acts of corruption, since public funds are inappropriately used to benefit the private interests of those temporarily administering such funds
to condemn media outlets and journalists that benefit from these improper and unlawful practices, and who go so far as to be complicit in such corrupt practices
to call on all governments in the hemisphere to eradicate these unlawful practices and punish those responsible for such actions.
FUENTE: nota.texto7
