The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on Wednesday expressed concern that the administration of President Bharrat Jagdeo has in its view "joined the list of governments that manipulate placement of advertising to punish critical or independent new media."
IAPA, with headquarters in Miami, Florida, is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression and of the press throughout the Americas.
According to a press release from the association, IAPA president Rafael Molina and the chairman of the organization's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquin, said: "To use taxpayers' money to punish or reward media is plain and simple corruption."
They recalled a resolution adopted by 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." The IAPA press release has been forwarded to its members throughout the region.
The release stated that since November, Stabroek News, an independent newspaper, has seen a drop in revenues from official advertising. The Government In-formation Agency (GINA) is said to have received orders from Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President Dr Nanda Gopaul to suspend official advertising in the Stabroek News, a decision said to be based on commercial considerations. However, "it is clear, given the newspaper's editorial stance, that this is a case of reprisal for that position," IAPA acknowledged.
Molina, editor of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Re-public newspaper El Dia, and Marroquin, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala newspaper Prensa Libre have called on President Jagdeo to "employ technical criteria in deciding placement of official advertising." According to the release, they have expressed the hope that the government would change its position and not use advertising in a manner contrary to the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, which was signed by President Jagdeo on May 24, 2002, in an official ceremony during an IAPA delegation's visit to Guyana.
In recent months, IAPA has denounced, among others, the governments of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela for employing this discriminatory practice, the release noted.
Its resolution on Discrimi-nation in Official Advertising and Corruption, which IAPA adopted in Mexico City on October 3, 2006, states that as "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, similar criteria lacking any objective basis are sometimes used to extend loans or other financial or administrative benefits."
Pointing out that "the funds thus managed belong to the people," the resolution declared that "these discriminatory practices are in many cases a government response to complaints or reports of corruption."
The resolution also pointed to Principle 6 of the Declaration of Chapultepec which states that "the media and journalists should neither be discriminated against nor favoured because of what they write or say". And the resolution also quoted Principle 7 which states that "the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists."
The resolution by the IAPA General Assembly also reiterated 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."
And denouncing 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," the IAPA General Assembly issued a call to "all governments in the hemisphere to eradicate these unlawful practices and punish those responsible for such actions."
IAPA enjoys a membership in excess of 1,300, representing newspapers and magazines from Patagonia to Alaska, with a combined circulation of over 43 million.
Editor-in-Chief of Stabroek News, David de Caires has said that the government's decision on the withdrawal of advertisements from the newspaper was a reversal of its support for press freedom and an attack on the free press.