MEDIA GROUPS CONCERNED AS ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT PUSHES NEW BROADCAST LAW

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000587



STATE PASS NSC



SIPDIS

SENSITIVE



E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KPAO, OPRC, KMDR, PREL, PHUM, AR

SUBJ: MEDIA GROUPS CONCERNED AS ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT PUSHES NEW

BROADCAST LAW



REF: Buenos Aires 531



1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

has said it intends to push for congressional approval of new

federal broadcasting legislation.

The current Broadcasting Law was passed by decree in 1980 by the

military dictatorship. During the last 25 years of democracy, a

handful of attempts to introduce new legislation failed. Numerous

amendments served to create the country's current media picture.

Although media organizations recognize the need to update the

legislation, they are skeptical about the bill's intent and outcome.

The initiative comes just as the GoA has stepped up its public

criticism of the media and taken measures seen as a means of

imposing pressure, especially on the dominant conglomerate, the

Clarin Group (reftel). The government has held its first rounds of

consultations with sectors interested in broadcasting. Reflecting

the perceived stakes involved, the government official in charge of

reforming the law, which will take months, called this "the mother

of all battles" for the Fernandez de Kirchner administration. END

SUMMARY.







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UPDATE OF "DIRTY WAR" BROADCASTING LAW - OVERDUE

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2. (SBU) Act 22285 on Federal Broadcasting was introduced by the

"Dirty War" military dictatorship in September 1980. The law is

outdated in many ways. It states, for instance, that the Federal

Broadcasting Committee (COMFER),the ultimate authority in charge of

enforcing the law, is to be manned by one representative from each

of the three armed forces that was running the country at the time.

The impracticality of that clause has led various subsequent

administrations to appoint trustees at COMFER, leaving it in full

civilian government control. The de facto takeover of COMFER by the

national government also leaves the provinces with no say on the way

airwaves are distributed throughout the country and results in

highly centralized decision-making. COMFER has also failed to set

up a master plan on the use and misuse of frequencies, turning a

blind eye to the proliferation of hundreds of radio stations working

extra-legally or on makeshift interim permits.



3. (SBU) Most of the 270 amendments to the Broadcasting Act were

introduced in the 1990s, and served effectively to reshape the

country's media landscape to allow for the creation of multimedia

organizations, which the law initially banned. The reform allowed

the Clarin Group to become the first media conglomerate in the

country, owner of the country's best-selling newspaper as well as

one of the four main broadcast TV stations. Also in the 1990s,

legislation scrapped a ban on broadcast licenses being sold and/or

transferred, leading to a multiplicity of ownership changes toward

the end of the decade and to concentration in the hands of two main

groups on the eve o the 2001-2002 economic crash: Clarin and CIE.

Although there is more media diversity on the scene now, a 2007

report by academics from the state-run University of Quilmes and

University of Buenos Aires on the structure and concentration of

cultural and information industries in Latin America concludes

Argentina is above the Latin-American average regarding

concentration of media ownership. While the right to access

information is a fundamental right under the Argentine Constitution,

the single state-owned TV channel reaches only 50% of the country's

population, given its limited territorial coverage (35%),according

to a report by the CELS human rights group.



4. (SBU) Critics argue that the law has become a confusing

crazy-quilt of amendments introduced randomly to either suit

short-term political interests or consolidate changes already extant

in the market. Act 22285 barely accounts for the skyrocketing

growth of cable television, one of Argentina's main media

businesses, with over five million clients (and dominated by the

Clarin Group). It provides no sound legal structure for coming next

steps in support of rapid convergence of technologies and services.

At present, the Act poses a conflict between telecommunication

companies and broadcasters. While Act 22285 bars telecoms from

entering the TV business, broadcasters are allowed to deliver triple

play (telephone, television, Internet) convergence, therefore

providing them a clear market advantage.



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CFK GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR NEW LAW ...

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5. (SBU) In April, the government announced an initiative to reform

the law. Gabriel Mariotto, the recently-appointed head of COMFER and

main architect of the reform, has not presented the government's

official draft yet. Various drafts have circulated in Congress in

recent years, but with little prospect of moving forward. The



Chairman in the Lower House's Committee on Communication and

Information Technology, Manuel Baladron, said the ruling Victory

Front majority would expedite passage of new government-sponsored

legislation. A press report indicated COMFER is finalizing a draft

that trims by half (24 to 12) the number of licenses a single

broadcaster is entitled to have, and sets market share limits (35-40

percent) to avoid concentration.



6. (SBU) Moriotto has asserted to the press that the government's

draft bill will closely adhere to a set of 21 points prepared four

years ago by a group comprised of University of Buenos Aires

academics, union leaders and the Coalition for Democratic

Broadcasting, which advocates broadcasting reform to overcome

perceived monopolistic practices. The "21 points" are a compilation

of principles that emanate from a decades-long intellectual movement

in the region that believe broadcasting and media should be

predominantly "public," as opposed to "private" or "state." Seeking

to occupy the middle ground between laissez-faire, pro-market ideals

and a firm state grip, this group defines the right to communication

as a universal human right that includes both freedom of the press

and the right of the public to receive fair, balanced, and unbiased

information. It calls for policies to avoid "the concentration of

information" both in hands of the state or the private sector.

Vertical or horizontal concentration in the media industry should be

controlled and the broadcasting spectrum should split in three, in

equal shares between public (state, but not governmental),private,

and community media. The manifesto also calls for the implementation

of quotas to guarantee nationally-produced contents on the air.



7. (SBU) The government has started a round of consultations with

groups, including private media associations, union leaders, and

academics from both public and private universities. Mariotto has

announced that final drafting of the bill would only start once

these talks are over. In what is taken by the media to be a

political message, the GoA has brought in unionists to give their

opinion on how the media should be regulated, with a prominent role

given to Hugo Moyano, head of the CGT (General Confederation of

Workers). Moyano has locked horns with Clarin for months over

coverage of union activities.



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... WHILE IT FUELS TENSION WITH THE MEDIA

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8. (SBU) Despite its broad support for new broadcasting legislation,

the media has become more critical of the administration's overall

policy toward the press. Both former president Nestor Kirchner and

his successor and wife, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner,

are well known for antagonizing media companies, sometimes singling

out journalists by name when they disliked their coverage. The

latest round of conflict between the government and the media came

on the heels of its conflict over export taxes with the farm sector,

which went on strike. Shortly after the Kirchners criticized Clarin

and its cable news channel, Todo Noticias (TN),of biased coverage

of the strike, Mariotto announced a realignment of cable positions

that would move TN to a less privileged channel. Most media

observers see the revival of the broadcast legislation as another

attempt by the administration to muzzle journalism and avoid

criticism of the President and her Cabinet. Mariotto of COMFER has

said that introducing new broadcast legislation amounts to "the

mother of all battles" for Argentina's democracy.



9. (SBU) Separately, private media outlets have been outspokenly

critical of the administration's announcement to give more clout to

a Media Content Observatory that runs under the wing of the

government's Anti-Discrimination Institute (INADI). The newspaper

publishers' association, ADEPA (Asociacion de Entidades

Periodisticas Argentinas),issued April 10 a statement which slams

the Observatory idea and complains about "the increasingly

irritating and more frequent" limitations on journalists.



10. (SBU) President Fernandez de Kirchner met April 25 with ADEPA

and other media organizations, including the independente media

association, CEMCI (Comision Empresaria de Medios de Comunicacion

Independientes),and the broadcasters' associations, ATA (Asociacion

de Telerradiodifusoras Argentinas) and ARPA (Asociacion de

Radiodifusoras Privadas Argentinas). She was accompanied by Mariotto

and her Media Secretary Enrique Albistur (see para 12 on

corruption). ADEPA presented the President with a statement of

views on the new legislation. The document states, among other

points, that: 1) broadcasting legislation should be restricted to

regulation of the administration of technical aspects of frequencies

and stay away from content, 2) content can be subject to

post-publication confirmation and accountability, but should never

be subject to pre-publication censorship, 3) the state should not

interfere in editorial prerogatives, 4) abusive taxation of the

media endangers freedom of expression, 5) the administration should

fight illegal broadcasters, and 6) there should be objective rules

in the allocation of state advertising. Media representatives

present at the meeting confirmed that the President spoke in defense

of press freedom, but said they are skeptical that they will have

any impact on the shape of a bill, which they believe is already

sitting in draft. They anticipate that the government's draft bill

will be detrimental to independent media.



11. (SBU) Beyond the media's institutional response, there has been

a noticeable shift toward more negative media coverage of

Argentina's reality in general and the government's performance in

particular. The shift is particularly visible in Clarin, whose

front-page carries much clout when it comes to setting the daily

agenda of public discussion in Argentina. It also coincides with a

decline in President Fernandez de Kirchner's approval ratings,

which, according to polls, has fallen below the 50 percent barrier

just four months after taking office December 10.



12.(U) Cases of corruption in the Kirchner administration are becoming

more visible in the mainstream media. In particular, a formal

investigation has been launched against Casa Rosada Media Secretary

Enrique Albistur, who is in charge of a 100 million dollar state

advertising budget, a critical source of funds for Argentine media.

He also oversees COMFER. The case involves allegations of directing

about one million dollars of public funds to businesses of family

and friends. While Albistur has drawn strong criticism from certain

media for allegedly skewing the GOA press budget to friendly media,

his case is now scoring headlines in leading media. Opposition

Deputy Silvana Giudici, the head of the Lower House Committee on

Freedom of Expression, has said that Albistur should resign to

undergo court investigation. Albistur is claiming innocence. In

the meantime, Albistur's advertising company is plastering posters

around Buenos Aires, "Clarin Lies; Clarin Contaminates," as

President Fernandez de Kirchner publicly critiques Clarin reporting.

Media contacts expect the battle against the media to continue

until, as has been the history of the Clarin media conglomerate with

the Kirchners, they negotiate and come to agreement on the terms of

a truce.



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COMMENT

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13. (SBU) Due to the Kirchners' tendency to publicly vilify enemies

for political gain, many suspect that the administration's effort to

redraw Argentina's media picture is part of a short-term

confrontational strategy designed to strong arm the media -- even

though the legislation is consistent with the Kirchner's

longstanding campaign against the last military dictatorship's

legacy. The Fernandez de Kirchner administration has opened a major

front of conflict with an institution the Argentine public considers

one of its most credible institutions.



WAYNE