Roberto Pereira: State cannot regulate radio frequency in ‘abusive and disproportionate way’

Criminal Lawyer Roberto Pereiraa specialist in media law and freedom of the press, questioned a bill that would oblige the media to broadcast music, art, and at least 40% of national programming daily from 05:00 to 24:00.

In an interview with RPP, he recalled that this project is part of other initiatives that have a similar profile. In addition, he pointed out that this proposal not only refers to the promotion of national production, which is already contained in the law on radio and television, but also intends to impose content that implies a certain budget.

“This is part of a process, a series of initiatives that have been proposed in Congress. From time to time, congressmen attack freedom of expression, freedom of information through a series of initiatives that try to limit the right to freedom of expression, to control the media,” he asked.

“This is another project that, from my point of view, is related to the ban under Article 13 of the American Convention, which is the abuse of the power of the state to regulate radio frequencies. to the usual, you can’t do it in an offensive and disproportionate way, and I think it is,” he added.

Mentioning that the bill obliging the media to broadcast national music, art and products “opens the door to arbitrariness” on the part of officials who will exercise this control, the lawyer insisted that it was about “interference” in the content of the media.

“This is clearly an interventionist project, inspired by a kind of folklore production quota law, which is completely wrong because it goes beyond this figure (…) This rule is clearly disproportionate, because it makes absolutely arbitrary intervention in the content of the media”, he added.

“It’s a form of interference”

In this regard, the criminal defense lawyer Louis Lamas Puccio described as a new “form of interference” a bill that proposes that open signal channels broadcast the equivalent of 30% of folk music a day. The purpose of the standard is to change various provisions of Law No. 28278, Radio and Television Law.

“What is happening is that the media script replaces the formal script, and all these problems of crime, corruption, abuse of power and political manipulation are discussed in the media. So this is not a space indifferent to the analysis of facts. because, moreover, these spaces have the opportunity, as never before, thanks to virtuality, to repeatedly guide public opinion,” he said.

Emphasizing the importance of the media and the “media scenario”, the specialist recalled that there is already a legal framework that regulates them and controls their work. However, he specified that in the case of the aforementioned bill, it is a proposal “that he will pursue an increase in the percentage in which the media are obliged to disseminate news about folklore aspects.”

“In this line of analysis, let’s not lose sight of the fact that there is a State Channel (…) The law is one for all, however, when political interests appeared, this State Channel became disoriented, perverted and many times used for political purposes, distorting the very meaning of the existence of the state channel,” he said.

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