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Government delays granting of licences to community media outlets as a form of control, says senator |
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Wednesday, 27 May 2009 |
Government delays granting of licences to community media outlets as a form of control, says senator
(CEPET/IFEX) - Senator Carlos Sotelo García, the president of the
Congress's Radio, Television and Cinematography Commission, has said
that for the last two years the Interior Secretariat (Secretaría de
Gobernación) has failed to grant licences to 140 community radio and
television station.
In an interview, the senator, who belongs to the Party of the
Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD), said
that the excessive delay in granting licences to alternative media
outlets is due to a desire on the part of the government to control the
media, especially taking into consideration that the Federal
Telecommunications Commission (Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones,
Cofetel) expressed a favorable opinion with respect to the licensing
applications in question.
Sotelo García added that the congressional commission over which he
presides is analysing the possibility of removing the granting of
telecommunications licences from the duties of the Interior
Secretariat. "They are shutting down community media outlets, saying
that they are operating without a licence, but what they fail to say is
that they have not acted on the media outlets' applications for
licences," the senator said.
Sotelo García also said that the Federal Attorney General's Office
(Procuraduría General de la República) has begun to selectively target
community radio stations, dismantling only those that are critical of
the government rather than all stations that are operating without a
licence.
On 19 May 2009, the Interior Secretariat cancelled it's
participation in the presentation of a manual covering the procedures
required for indigenous communities to obtain broadcasting licences.
In an interview, Erick Huerta Velásquez, the assistant coordinator
of the Diversity, Equality and Sustainability Networks (Redes por la
Diversidad, Equidad y Sustentabilidad), which organised the event, said
that indigenous community radio stations reflect the country's
diversity and should be supported by the government. He noted that 200
indigenous community radio stations are operating without licences and
added that the government has opted to "criminalize" communication. As
an example, he referred to several cases in which community radio
stations are facing criminal charges for operating without a licence.
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