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National Assembly approves Communication Law

National Assembly approves Communication Law
14 de junio de 2013 - 13:47

This morning the controversial Communications Law was finally passed by Ecuadors National Assembly.

Various drafts of bills for a communications law have been active in the National Assembly for three years, but the opposition has always kept the matter from coming to a decisive vote. After President Rafael Correas Alianza PAIS political party won a clear majority in the last general election, passage of this law became a high priority. 

The law that was passed today contains more than one hundred articles and is divided into six chapters. The chapters were voted on individually, and each passed with more than 108 votes (out of 137 possibles). 

The law is historic because it regulates the written press, whereas previous legislation only applied to broadcast mediums.

The law introduces the following new practices for communications in Ecuador:

   -the creation of a creates a new Secretariat of Information and Communication to enforce the new rules

   -quotas for national programming on television and radio airwaves.

   -commercials that air locally must be produced in Ecuador, by Ecuadorians. 

   -expectations for accesibility in media (subtitles, sign language translation, etc)

   -media concentration and monopolies are forbidden

   -radio frequencies will be redistributed in the following way: 33 percent to public broadcasting, 33 percent to private broadcasting and 34 percent to community media. 

   -community media will be developed with grants, tax breaks, loans, and training provided by the Secretariat. 

   -people will have a "right to reply" to information emitted about them in news media

   -those that emit information must be legally responsible for what they publish

The opposition in the legislature and in the private media claim that some parts of the law will result in a restriction on freedom of speech. Many fear this language in the law about "responsibility" for the information emitted will lead to penalties and lawsuits against those who publish information that the government doesnt like. There is some precedent for this fear, as the President has taken journalists to court before for articles he considered libelous to his person. 

After the voted, Alianza PAIS legislators stood in the National Assembly, applauded and cheered phrases such as "Were not interested in the bourgeois press" to celebrate the laws passing.

The full text of the law is available in Spanish.

 

 

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