By Oliver Balch in Buenos Aires Published: October 11 2009 17:16 | Last updated: October 11 2009 18:39 Argentina’s largest media groups will be required to sell off various radio and television channels in the wake of a controversial media law rushed through on Saturday. After several weeks of intense parliamentary debate, the media reform bill won approval on Sunday after a 20-hour debate in the country’s upper house. The ‘yes’ vote provides an important political boost to the flagging administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is set to lose her parliamentary majority when a new Congress sits in December. Ms Fernández, who has given only a handful of open press conferences since taking office in 2007, says the new media law is designed to bring greater competition to the sector. The broadcasting bill obliges owners of multiple media concessions to disinvest a percentage of their holdings so as to allow for greater government or non-profit participation. Media groups have twelve months to meet the disinvestment requirement, which they argue contravenes property rights. Clarín Group is expected to challenge the bill in the courts, a lawyer for the media conglomerate told The Financial Times. A regular critic of the Argentine press, Ms Fernández’s relationship with the country’s main media operators soured during a four-month farmers’ strike last year. Relations have deteriorated further since the ruling party lost mid-term elections in June – an outcome that the government blames on media bias, particularly by the powerful Clarín Group. According to Argentina’s premier, Clarín Group controls 73 per cent of all media licences. Its suite of business interests includes the leading cable television company Cablevision and television channel Canal 13. Clarín, which also owns the country’s leading daily newspaper, claims the number is below 40 per cent. Other private media companies due to be affected by the reform bill include Spain’s Grupo Prisa and Telefonica. Supporters of the bill, which defines media as being for the “social and public good”, argue that a reform of the sector is long overdue. Argentina’s media laws date back to the last military dictatorship over 25 years ago. But critics say that the reform threatens freedom of speech and opens the door to government censorship. Among the chief concerns is a new watchdog that will be answerable to the government rather than an independent agency. Opponents also draw parallels with the decision by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez not to extend the transmission licences of various opposition broadcasters. The bill represents a “negative development”, concurs Daniel Kerner, an analyst with research firm Eurasia Group. “It will probably leave a more fragmented, less efficient and politically vulnerable media sector, and further increase political tensions”, he adds. The media law could be the first in a series of controversial bills in the run-up to the formation of the new Congress in December, political analysts warn. Although opposition lawmakers were unable to build sufficient quorum to defeat the bill, which was passed by 44 votes to 24, they say they will propose a bill to retract the changes once the new Congress sits.Argentina passes controversial media reform
Monday 12 October 2009
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