The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) has announced that the 2008 Chapultepec Grand Prize - one of the most prestigious distinctions given out by the IAPA - will be awarded to the Argentine Supreme Court, in the name of Chief Justice Ricardo Luis Lorenzetti.

The award is being bestowed for the court's recent decision barring the government from discriminating against news outlets by arbitrarily withdrawing or cutting back on government advertising.

The historic ruling, in a case that pitted the Neuquén provincial government and Governor Jorge Sobisch against newspaper Editorial Río Negro, held that "the government may not manipulate advertising by giving it to or taking it away from media outlets on the basis of discriminatory criteria," that advertising may not be used "as an indirect means of undermining freedom of speech," and that "government discrimination in the placement of advertising is an act of indirect coercion that is contrary to freedom of speech."

"For the IAPA, the court's decision truly embodies the meaning and spirit of the Declaration of Chapultepec and sets an outstanding precedent for case law in the Americas," the association stated.

The Chapultepec Grand Prize was established to recognise the efforts of individuals and entities that are not necessarily related to the media but have made significant contributions to the effort to promote, develop, strengthen and defend the principles of press freedom set forth in the Declaration of Chapultepec, created in 1994 as an instrument for freedom of speech in the Western Hemisphere.