On Tuesday, seventeen international media associations and the Americas called for a “fair and reasonable” remuneration for the publication of journalistic content on digital platforms.
The statement “Media of the Americas call to defend the value of professional journalism in the digital ecosystem”, was signed by international and national associations that together bring together more than 40 thousand media from Canada, United States, Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.
Regarding the market position of digital platforms, the associations propose “coherent approaches at a global level to enforce a right that is based on both intellectual property and antitrust rules”. It adds that “it is essential to avoid abusive practices in the digital advertising market”.
The associations seek to warn about the economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic, affirming that “information deserts are being created as a result of the closure of media in many communities, a figure that the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutiérrez, defined as “worrying media extinction”.
Likewise, they highlight the initiatives of Google and Facebook in which they will pay the media in some countries for their contents, although they consider that “these programs do not yet constitute the fair and comprehensive response that the industry requires”, and state that it is necessary to “promote a healthy and balanced digital ecosystem”.
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In addition to payment for content and advertising concentration, the associations pay special attention to the issue of algorithms, whose opacity and discretionality affect the production and distribution of content.
That is why the associations agreed to ask digital platforms to accelerate their programs of payment for content and support to the media. In addition, the programs should be more inclusive, benefiting both larger publications and those that cover small communities.
The organizations that are part of the initiative are: Inter American Press Association (IAPA), World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Ibero-American Telecommunications Organization (OTI), International Association of Broadcasting (AIR), News Media Canada (NMC, Canada), News Media Alliance (NMA, United States), Alianza de Medios Mx (Mexico), Asociación de Medios de Comunicación de Honduras (AMC, Honduras), Media Association of Jamaica (MAJ, Jamaica), Sociedad Dominicana de Diarios (SDD, Dominican Republic), Asociación de Medios de Información (AMI, Colombia), Asociación Ecuatoriana de Editores de Periódicos (AEDEP, Ecuador), Consejo de la Prensa Peruana (CPP, Peru), Asociación Nacional de Periódicos (ANJ, Brazil), Asociación Nacional de la Prensa (ANP, Bolivia), Asociación Nacional de la Prensa (ANP, Chile) and Asociación de Entidades Periodísticas Argentinas (ADEPA, Argentina).
