Press group praises ruling on Mexico government ad spending

MEXICO CITY – The Inter-American Press Association is hailing a decision by Mexico’s Supreme Court to push for more openness and transparency in government ad purchases.

The press group said state and federal governments have used “official advertising in a discretionary manner … to award or punish news media according to their editorial stances.”

The group called current ad purchasing “a very subtle and perverse form of indirect censorship.”

The court ruled Wednesday that the federal congress must pass a law regulating ad purchases by April 30, to ensure “efficiency, effectiveness and honesty” in such contracts.

The Mexican government is the largest single source of ad revenue for media outlets, spending hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

The ruling came on a case filed by Mexico’s Article 19 press freedom group.