Media Update: New Laws Shape the Future of the Press

The Latin American media landscape is dramatically changing as countries pass, apply, and repeal laws—many dating back to the era of military rule—relating to press freedom and ownership structures. And while media operations around the world are facing an uncertain future, what makes Latin America unique is that the region is simultaneously undergoing a series of sweeping policy reforms that could profoundly affect how journalists report the news and how citizens receive information. This update looks at some of these new policies from around the hemisphere.
 

• Argentina’s Audio-Visual Communications Law
• Brazil Revokes Military-Era Laws
• Venezuelan Law Shapes Media Content
• Honduras’ Coup Leaders Restrict the Press

Argentina’s Audio-Visual Communications Law

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed a new media bill into law on October 11, 2009, that limits the number of broadcast licenses a single company can hold. The Senate passed the Audio-Visual Communications Law 44-24 without amending it. Fernández had introduced the bill in March, and a modified version passed Argentina’s lower house on September 17. The new legislation replaces a law dating to 1980 that allowed a small number of media companies to control the airways, but grants the government a stronger role in determining which stations are allowed to broadcast.

The law establishes a new, seven-person broadcast regulatory body to control licenses. Two members will be chosen by the president, two by congress and three by a federal committee representing provincial governments. The number of licenses a single company can hold has been reduced from 24 to 10 and licenses will now be granted for 10 years rather than 15.

Under the new law, broadcast licenses are to be split equally between outlets run by the government, the private sector and nonprofit organizations including universities and indigenous groups. Companies that hold too many licenses will have to sell off some of their assets within a year. The law also requires that 70 percent of radio and 60 percent of television content be produced in Argentina.

In campaigning for the bill, Fernández targeted Grupo Clarín, the country’s largest media company, claiming the company holds 73 percent of Argentina’s radio and television licenses. Clarín media outlets are widely considered to be critical of the government, and the company plans to challenge the constitutionality of the new law in court. A new Congress, which will take over on December 10, could attempt to modify the law, but it would need two-thirds support to overrule an executive veto.

Brazil Revokes Military-Era Laws

On May 1, 2009, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal struck down a 42-year-old press law, ruling that the law violated the constitutionally guarantee of freedom of expression.

The harshest punishments that could be administered under the law for cases of libel and slander had not been applied since the adoption of the 1988 constitution. But in 2006, a court had extended the 1967 Press Law to apply to Internet publications and fined a magazine, Veja Online, for defaming an ex-official.

The Supreme Federal Court had already suspended 22 of the law’s 67 provisions in 2008, including measures allowing the censorship of public entertainment events and the closing down of media outlets without first obtaining judicial approval. Journalists and advocates praised the recent decision to completely scrap one of the final legal vestiges of military rule, though some believe that new legislation on privacy and defamation should be adopted. On June 18, the Supreme Federal Tribunal also struck down by a vote of 8 to 1 a law dating from 1969 that required practicing journalists to have a university diploma in journalism.

Venezuelan Law Shapes Media Content

Venezuela’s National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) has gained plenty of international attention for launching investigations into private media outlets and threatening sanctions against Globovisión.

Less in the public eye are the media measures built into the “Organic Law of Education,” which was passed by the National Assembly on August 14, 2009, and enacted by President Hugo Chávez the following day. The law states that the media should “contribute to the development of the values and principles established in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” but should not contain “messages contrary to national sovereignty” or material that “produces terror in children, incites hate, aggression, indiscipline, deforms language, and goes against the values of the Venezuelan people.” In September, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami directed CONATEL to fine cable companies that showed Family Guy after an episode featured the characters campaigning for the legalization of marijuana. A year earlier, prior to passage of the education law, CONATEL had banned The Simpsons for being unsuitable for children after viewers alleged allegedly complained to the agency.

Venezuela’s National Assembly also considered a draft law to limit ownership of media outlets in July and a “Media Crimes” law earlier in August. Neither measure has gained the Assembly’s support. The “Media Crimes Law” would allow officials to legally jail anyone producing content deemed contrary to the national interest. Its wide condemnation by international media organizations was magnified by the fact that the legislation came up just days after journalists and students took to the streets to protest CONATEL’s decision to revoke 32 independent radio station licenses.

Honduras’ Coup Leaders Restrict the Press

Honduras’s de facto government suspended the constitutional right to free expression on September 22, 2009. Executive Decree Number PCM-M-016-2009, published in the government journal La Gaceta, gave the National Commission of Telecommunications the ability to interrupt any broadcast. Four days later, de facto President Roberto Micheletti ordered federal troops to shut down Canal 36 as well as the Radio Globo station. Radio Globo resumed web broadcasts the following day. Under intense pressure, Micheletti lifted the emergency decree on October 6 and rescinded the executive decree limiting press freedoms on October 19. Radio Globo and Channel 36 resumed broadcasts a few hours later.