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Subject:
From:
DeeDee Halleck <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
DeeDee Halleck <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:45:12 -0400
Content-Type:
multipart/alternative
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (6 kB) , text/html (13 kB)
See
http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.blogspot.com
for several posts about this historic legislation.
xx
dd

 From IPS:

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 12 (IPS) - While civil society groups celebrated  
Argentina's new broadcasting law, media giants threatened to fight it  
with a wave of lawsuits, and opposition lawmakers pledged to revise  
it after the next Congress convenes in December. In the new  
legislature, the result of June elections in which President Cristina  
Fernández's supporters lost their majority, the opposition will try  
to amend or overturn the law, which was approved by the Senate in a  
44-24 vote early Saturday morning, after a nearly 20-hour debate. The  
president signed it into law later that day.

The bill, which stirred up a major controversy in Argentina, brought  
the centre-left Fernández into conflict with the leading media  
groups, as it curbs the concentration of media ownership. A broad  
network of social organisations, which had long been demanding a new  
media law to replace the one in effect since the 1976-1983 military  
dictatorship, loudly applauded the passage of the bill without  
modifications

United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and  
Expression Frank La Rue said the new law set "an example for other  
countries" by guaranteeing access to the media by all segments of  
society. The new law represents "a stride forward in Latin America  
against the increasing concentration of media ownership," he said.

A number of prominent academics and human rights activists threw  
their support behind the law. Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Pérez  
Esquivel told IPS before the Senate vote that approval of the new law  
was essential. "We cannot continue to have a dictatorship-era law,  
created by (dictator Jorge Rafael) Videla," said the activist, who is  
often critical of the Fernández administration.

"There is resistance because this law affects the interests of big  
corporations like Grupo Clarín, which waged a major campaign against  
its passage. But this is not a 'K law'," said Pérez Esquivel. The TN  
cable news station owned by Grupo Clarín, Argentina's biggest media  
conglomerate, dubbed the bill the "K law" – for former president  
Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), Fernández's predecessor and husband.

"They have tried to depict this bill as a government law, but social  
organisations have been working for a democratic media law for the  
past 25 years," said Pérez Esquivel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in  
1980 for his efforts in the defence of human rights during the de  
facto military regime.

Senator Ernesto Sanz, leader of the main opposition bloc, the Radical  
Civic Union (UCR), said that his party backed over 100 of the 166  
articles of the law. But no agreement was reached on amendments to  
the other clauses, and the law was passed without modifications.  
Grupo Clarín - which owns more than 250 newspapers, radio stations,  
TV channels and cable stations - and other large media companies  
fought the new law tooth and nail, and the political opposition  
echoed their complaints that the new legislation would give Fernández  
and Kirchner greater influence over the media.

"Kirchner Now Has Law Granting Control over Media" was the front page  
headline in Clarín, the country's leading newspaper, on Saturday.  
Senator Sanz said the law is "bad" because it will unleash a flood of  
lawsuits by companies that will be affected by the change of  
broadcasting rules, although he added that it could be modified by  
the new Congress.

Since the return to democracy in 1983, civil society had been  
demanding new legislation to replace a dictatorship-era law under  
which a handful of companies have immense power over the media.  
Hundreds of human rights groups, community radio stations,  
universities and other civil society bodies joined together in the  
"Coalition for Democratic Broadcasting" to advocate a new law that  
would contain 21 specific points guaranteeing the right to  
communication and information. "This law was our project," the  
Coalition's coordinator, Néstor Busso, told IPS.

Thousands of members of the Coalition and of political parties, trade  
unions and student groups gathered outside of Congress Friday to  
express their support for the new law as the Senate debated, and  
celebrated when it passed.

The stated aim of the new legislation is to fight the concentration  
of media ownership by limiting the number of broadcasting licenses in  
the hands of media giants. It describes communication as a "public  
service" and will diversify the airwaves by reserving one-third of  
licenses each for non-profit organisations, state broadcasters and  
private companies.

In addition, it stipulates that at least 70 percent of radio content  
and 60 percent of television programming must be produced in  
Argentina, while requiring that cable TV stations carry channels run  
by trade unions, universities, indigenous groups and other social  
organisations.

In the lower house of Congress, the ruling party agreed to 200  
modifications of the bill, which brought left-wing parties on board.  
The draft law made it through the lower house in September with a  
vote of 146-three, with three abstentions, as the opposition  
boycotted the vote. In the Senate, the biggest controversy was over  
allegations that the new law expanded government control over the  
media, even though executive branch influence was limited thanks to  
lobbying by leftist parties in the lower house, which increased the  
participation by not-for-profit organisations.

The new regulatory and licensing body that will replace the federal  
commission created by the dictatorship and controlled by the  
government of the day will have seven members: two designated by the  
executive branch, three elected by Congress and two named by a  
federal body made up of experts.

The one-year deadline for companies to shed broadcasting licenses  
over the limit also drew fire, with the opposition arguing that the  
firms will be forced to sell at unreasonably low prices, and that the  
licenses could be picked up by government cronies at bargain prices.

In a column published by the Perfil newspaper, Professor Eliseo Verón  
wrote that "deep-down, the fierce struggle for a new media law is a  
huge effort on the part of the government to recuperate power, aimed  
at stripping its enemies of certain media businesses to hand them  
over to its friends."



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