In order to comply with the constitution, banks had until this week to divest their stakes in the country’s media outlets leading to ownership changes for at least two TV stations, BBC Mundo and El Comercio report.
“It is important to nationalize the media,” President Cristina Fernández said, highlighting the media's importance in “defending the interests of the country,” Télam and Página 12 report.
The government has begun to plan how it will regulate the new Anti-Racism Law, in spite of protests from press groups against two articles that could punish media outlets with closure and journalists with prison if they spread racist ideas, Jornadanet reports. The bill was signed into law last week, and the government has 90 days to make the regulatory changes necessary for the bill to be enforced.
After legislative threats by the National Assembly, Ecuador’s Banking Board – which regulates the financial system – unanimously overturned a rule that allowed banks to own up to 25 percent of a media outlet, El Universo and El Comercio report.
The judge presiding over Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Court, Wilfredo Ovando, rejected efforts by journalism groups to hold a referendum on two controversial articles in the recently approved anti-racism law, EFE reports. The new rules were signed into law by President Evo Morales last week, igniting protests from activists and journalists who argue the law violates freedom of expression.
Franklin Martins, the minister in charge of government advertising and relations with the media, said that Brazil was preparing a media bill that will reach Congress before the end of the year, BBC Brasil reports. According to O Estado de S. Paulo, the proposal includes the creation of a government agency in charge of regulation.
Despite a growing need for transparency and access to information in the public sector, Brazil remains one of the few Latin American countries that still has not approved a freedom of information (FOI) law. The relatively weak news media coverage of a freedom of information law in Brazil is one of the key factors that can explain why proposals have been floating around Congress since 2003 without finding closure and, consequently, why citizens still have no right to access information. While an information access bill was introduced in Congress in May 2009, it still is awaiting approval in the Senate.
The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a ban on a part of the media law that requires conglomerates such as the Clarín Group to sell off some of their assets within a year, Bloomberg News reports.
President José Mujica told the Brazilian magazine Veja that rulers shouldn’t respond to criticism from the press, because “if you respond you lose twice,” EFE reports.
Under the slogan “the media law is for everyone, for the monopolies too,” activists demanded enforcement of the Audiovisual Media Law, a rule that was passed by Congress nearly a year ago but is still unenforced due to several court rulings, La Jornada and EFE report.