advertising soft censorship
THE AMERICAS — GUATEMALA — ADVERTISING & INFLUENCE
According to the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), evidence exists in Guatemala of an arbitrary allocation of public advertising that distorts the local print market and discriminates against El Periódico, the country’s single most independent media outlet.
THE AMERICAS — ECUADOR — ADVERTISING & INFLUENCE
According to the Inter American Press Association, the effect of uneven distribution is particularly devastating in countries such as Ecuador, where the government is the largest advertiser and therefore in a position to extort undue influence over independent media outlets.
THE AMERICAS — COLOMBIA — ADVERTISING & INFLUENCE
In Colombia, local media depend heavily on advertising by regional and municipal government agencies to stay in business, encouraging collusion among media owners, journalists, and officials, Freedom House reported.
THE AMERICAS — ARGENTINA — ADVERTISING & INFLUENCE
Argentina’s government is accused of routinely manipulating distribution of official advertising to limit free speech, according to many press freedom organizations. The newspapers Clarín and La Nación account for 60 percent of the readership in Buenos Aries, but receive just 2.5 percent of government advertising. Other newspapers with a small fraction of the circulation are awarded far more official advertising.
Read more:
Freedom House, Freedom of the Press 2013—Argentina, http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/ freedom-press/2013/argentina#.Uz0dQl4kjK4
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Attacks on the Press in 2011—Argentina, February 2012, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,CPJ,,ARG,,4f4cc9972d,0.html
AFRICA — NAMIBIA — ADVERTISING & INFLUENCE
In 2012, Namibia’s government ended a decade-long advertising boycott of The Namibian, the country’s largest daily newspaper. In 2000, then President Sam Nujoma blocked all government advertising and purchases of the leading daily because he perceived the newspaper to be anti-governmental.