---Apologies for cross-posting---
Catalan Government announces support for community media
by Núria Reguero in Barcelona for www.communitymedia.eu
The General Director for the Media and Audiovisual Distribution Services
of the Government of Catalonia, Gemma Domènech and the Ràdio Contrabanda
and Ràdio Bronka speakersThe General Director for the Media and
Audiovisual Distribution Services of the Regional Government of
Catalonia, Spain, has committed to recognise the not-for-profit media
before the end of the current legislature at the roundtable “Third
Sector Media in Catalonia: experiences and policies”, held on 27
November 2008 at the ECREA conference in Barcelona.
The debate, organized by the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the
Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the European Communication
and Research Education Association (ECREA), gathered media activists,
researchers and politicians at the Journalists College of Catalonia to
discuss, among other issues, the status of the implementation of Digital
Terrestrial Television (DTT), the release of new FM frequencies and the
inclusion of not-for-profit media in the Catalan and Spanish regulation.
The General Director for the Media and Audiovisual Distribution Services
of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya), Gemma
Domènech (pictured above together with the speakers from Radio
Contrabanda and Radio Bronka), committed to recognise the Third Media
Sector as a separate one from the public service and the private
commercial media: “It is a great value to have not-for-profit media. I
do not think that you are pirates and I do not want you to be illegal
any longer. That is why the Catalan Government will start a debate next
year with the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia and all the actors
involved”, she stated.
Concerning the lack of frequencies granted to the Third Media Sector in
the Catalan region, Domènech pointed out to the problem of FM radio
spectrum saturation in Spain and argued that the Government of Catalonia
has no competences on that matter, given that this belongs to the
State’s General Secretary of Planning and Management of the Radio Spectrum.
Speakers and the publicSpanish practitioners are demanding distinctive
regulation for the third sector since long time and the context seems to
have improved recently after the approval of two amendments to the
Spanish Law for the Protection and Promotion of the Information Society
(Ley de Medias para la Promoción de la Sociedad de la Información,
2007). Nevertheless, the General Director criticized the fact that this
law only allows the legalization of TV stations that were broadcasting
before the approval of the national law of local TV (Ley de la
televisión local, 1995).
Specifically in Catalonia, some progresses have also been made with the
approval of the Catalan Audiovisual Law (Llei de l’Audiovisual de
Catalunya, 2005), which recognizes the specificity of not-for-profit
media in the region. But, de facto, these media have been not granted
broadcasting licenses because the licensing process was not adapted to
the characteristics of not-for-profit media.
One of these projects is Ràdio Contrabanda, a radio station based in
Barcelona, active since 1991 and part of the social movements of the
city: “We have a history behind us and the citizens’ support, we do not
aim to make financial profit, thus, we can not be treated as an station
aiming for profit by illegal means”, remarked the station’s speaker Xavi
Apache.
Ràdio Bronka, a station aiming to broadcast locally information not
covered by mainstream media, and La Tele, build up by the association
Asamblea de la Comunicación Social, are other cases that face the same
situation as Contrabanda. La Tele has also been fined €60.000 for not
switching off the transmissions after it was decided that that it could
not get any license.
“We, the Third Media Sector, are citizen groups aiming to have our own
voice through our media, and our reality is an illegal ‘limbo’ because
we do not fit neither in the public nor in the private categories”,
Javier García, member of the Spanish's Network of Community Media (Red
Estatal de Medios Comunitarios) and of the Free and Community Radio
Union of Madrid (Unión de Radios Libres y Comunitarias de Madrid), said.
Núria Reguero
Communication Institute (InCom-UAB)
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Source:
http://www.communitymedia.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=1
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Salvatore Scifo
Editor, communitymedia.eu
www.communitymedia.eu
connecting community media research>teaching>policy>practice in Europe
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