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MEDIA-VENEZUELA: Controversy Over New Broadcasting Regulations
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Nov 16 (IPS) - A draft law on "social responsibility in
broadcasting" is seen by the Venezuelan government and its supporters as a
tool for protecting children from inappropriate programming and bolstering
independent media.
But the opposition movement, with which the country's powerful private media
are closely aligned, regards it as an instrument for President Hugo Chávez
to intimidate the media and exercise control over society.
The bill made it through the first hurdle in parliament last year with the
votes of the ruling coalition majority, which holds 87 of the 165 seats in
Congress.
In October, it moved into the second and final debate, where it is being
discussed clause by clause amidst the same polarisation that has divided
Venezuelan society between supporters and opponents of the left-leaning
Chávez for the past few years.
Venezuela's current legislation on broadcasting dates back to 1941, although
it has been frequently amended.
According to Information Minister Andrés Izarra, the bill is based on four
central pillars, including "the respect that the hosts of TV and radio
programmes should offer, and the broadcasting of episodes containing sex and
violence at appropriate times of day, to protect children."
The other two are the aim of "forming citizens who are critical of media
content," and fomenting the creation of a national "broadcasting industry
that is in line with the model of socioeconomic change that the country is
experiencing."
That is a reference to Chávez's "peaceful social revolution", which has
included a wide range of social programmes, like an adult literacy drive,
job training and microcredit programmes for the poor, soup kitchens and
subsidised food products, and campaigns that have brought health care,
including dental coverage, to slum neighbourhoods.
The purpose of the bill, according to the government, is "to establish the
social responsibility of the providers of radio and TV and related
services," in order to strengthen democracy, peace, human rights, culture,
health and development, in keeping with the constitution and the national
laws, especially the one that specifically protects children and
adolescents.
The constitution, which was rewritten under Chávez and approved by voters in
a 1999 referendum, prohibits prior censorship and underlines the public's
right to "accurate and timely information".
Most of Venezuela's private media outlets, including the leading networks,
are openly aligned with the opposition movement that attempted to remove
Chávez from power between 2001 and last August, when the president won the
support of 59 percent of voters in a recall referendum.
During the short-lived April 2002 coup d'etat that ousted Chávez for two
days, the private TV stations did not cover the massive protests held in
support of the president, which helped restore him to power, broadcasting
cartoons instead.
That stood in sharp contrast to the virtually non-stop coverage of the
opposition demonstrations that led up to the coup.
And during the December 2002-January 2003 anti-Chávez business shutdown, the
privately-owned TV stations stopped airing commercials and merely showed
propaganda spots financed by the Democratic Coordinator opposition alliance.
However, the private stations have toned down their openly anti-government
campaign in the past few months.
Among other things, the new law would create a "family viewing time" when
"adult-oriented" programming would be banned.
It would also grant the state and local communities broadcasting space on
every channel; provide facilities to independent producers; set up an
oversight body; create hefty fines for those who violate the new
regulations; and allow authorities to temporarily or permanently close down
stations found to be repeat offenders.
Izarra said that according to the bill, "60 percent of TV programming must
be made by independent producers, which will give rise to a state policy of
support for the development of a national broadcasting industry."
The ruling coalition lawmakers argue that TV programming must no longer
remain a monopoly of a handful of families, which have controlled the main
TV stations for decades. The three leading networks have 70 percent of the
audience.
The most popular is Venevisión, which belongs to the Cisneros Group, whose
chief executive, Gustavo Cisneros, has investments in DirecTV, Univisión and
a number of other companies in the entertainment industry. He is one of the
100 wealthiest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, and has
owned Venevisión for 40 years.
The Phelps family, which has been in the radio business for 70 years, has
owned Radio Caracas Televisiòn for half a century, while the Camero family
has run the third-largest network, Televen, for 20 years.
An assembly of dozens of independent producers meeting during the last week
of October in Caracas urged that the new provisions aimed at fortifying the
national broadcasting industry be accompanied by a fund for financing local
talent.
The bill states that only people who are not related, even remotely, to the
families that own the private stations, and who have not worked for them for
at least two years, can present themselves as independent producers, in
order to benefit from the facilities to be created by the new law.
"That is an exaggeration, and a condemnation to unemployment: how can it be
that someone who a year or more ago stopped working for us cannot present a
project for producing a programme?" the director of a private channel told
IPS on condition of anonymity.
A second controversial aspect involves a new scale of "A" to "D" for rating
programming according to the level of sexually explicit images, violence or
foul language.
Under the new system, severe restrictions will be in effect from 7:00 AM to
7:00 PM, and lighter restrictions until 11:00 PM. After that, broadcasters
will enjoy wider freedom to air adult programming.
Critics claim that under the new measure, the oversight bodies could block
or punish the broadcasting of live news coverage of events like the Sep. 11,
2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
But governing coalition legislator Desirée Santos told IPS that the bill
would not "establish prior censorship under any circumstances. The idea is
simply for the media, which will be able to broadcast live whenever they
wish, not to make sensationalist use of images or sounds to exploit people's
morbid fascination in time slots dedicated to the education of children and
adolescents."
However, communications expert Antonio Pasquali, who heads the Committee for
Radio and Television as a Public Service, a local non-governmental
organisation, described the bill as "totalitarian".
He said it "promotes censorship and self-censorship, and will allow the
regime to establish what can and cannot be broadcast, which should be
determined by an agreement between broadcasters and society.
"If the state wants better radio and TV programming, it should practice what
it preaches. But the stations in the hands of the government only produce
propaganda, while the country is crying out for a third voice, which does
not exist," he argued in a conversation with IPS.
Marcelino Bisbal, director of graduate studies in communications at the
Andrés Bello Catholic University, also believes that the bill is
"authoritarian and un-democratic", and that the state is trying to create "a
legal instrument to control a space in which dissent is still possible."
But José López, with the Latin American Network of Radio Stations in Favour
of Peace, said that with the new law and the new spaces that have been
opening up to community and alternative media, "local communities will now
have many means of expressing themselves."
The bill "is not aimed at censorship or self-censorship, but at creating
legal mechanisms that will allow all Venezuelans to defend themselves from
the slander and abuses to which they have been subjected on a daily basis by
some media outlets," said Izarra.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur for Freedom
of Expression said the bill does not live up to international standards of
protection for freedom of expression.
But Izarra, presenting the conclusions of panels and working groups that he
headed, said "we believe that through court sentences interpreting the new
law, it can be fine-tuned."
However, parliamentary Deputy Alfonso Marquina, who heads the opposition
legislators opposed to the new law, said "we can't have a vague description
of an infringement or a crime, leaving it up to another body to interpret
the possible violation."
The new broadcasting oversight system would be headed by a Social
Responsibility Council made up of 21 members: six representing the
government, two representing other state entities, three from consumer
organisations, five from radio and TV stations, three broadcasting
professionals, one representative of the universities, and one delegate from
the church.
(END/2004)
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