By Maira Magro
The new communications minister, Paulo Bernardo, said he supported a rule that bars a company from owning a radio station, newspaper, and TV station in the same region, Folha de S. Paulo reports. He made the statements in an interview with TV Brasil (see the video below).
A ban on so-called “cross-media ownership” is one of the rules included in the media regulation bill that was proposed by the previous administration, Globo explains.
The goal is to decentralize the sector: “There are hundreds of companies in the market, but four or five account for more than 90% of the audience,” Bernardo said, quoted by Folha. Bernardo also stressed to TV Brasil the importance of maintaining domestic and regional content requirements, as established in the constitution. According to iG, the new minister also said he opposed granting radio and TV broadcast licenses to politicians.
The minister has said that before the bill is passed, there needs to be public comment period. The minister routinely discusses these issues on his Twitter account, which has 11,000 followers.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
