Argentina
Lower house passes media billPosted Sep 27 2009
Argentina’s lower house passed a controversial media bill proposed by President Kirchner that would create a media regulation agency and restrict broad media ownership.
According to the draft of the bill, the Audio-Visual-Communication law will regulate television and radio broadcasters and increase competition by allowing smaller companies more access to frequencies and restricting the number of licenses granted to dominant media conglomerates.
One section of the bill restricts foreign ownership of communication companies to a maximum of 30 percent. According to the Dow Jones Newswires, “Another section of the bill would force Telefonica to sell Telefe, one of Argentina's top TV stations. Local media reports have said businessmen closely associated with Fernandez and Nestor Kirchner, her husband and predecessor, are interested in buying the station.”
Opponents say Kirchner wants to punish the media conglomerate Clarín Groups for being critical of her administration. The law, if it is also passes through the senate, will force Clarín Group to sell or restructure their cable, television and radio interests.
Former President, and Deputy elect Néstor Kirchner said Clarín Group is against the law because they want to maintain their market dominance. “Clarín Group and its monopoly may insult me, they do it to maintain its monopoly and continue manipulating information.”
According to international Argentine freelance journalist Carolina Escudero, the new media law is needed. “Today’s legislation was written during Argentina’s bloody dictatorship (1976-1983), when 500 journalists fled abroad, 80 were jailed and at least 68 disappeared and were probably murdered. Today’s media law is proposing, but doesn’t contain curbs on the politicization of official advertising budgets. But it does restrict how many broadcasting licenses a company can own which is a very important step.”
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