"Esta edición de Perspectivas Progresistas analiza el reciente debate y proceso po-lítico sobre las reformas a la legislación de radio, televisión y telecomunicaciones en México.“Una ley para Televisa: crónica de una regresión política” es el título del análisis que realizó el investi
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gador y especialista en medios Raúl Trejo Delarbre, a través pre-cisamente de una crónica de aquellos aciagos días que desembocaron en la aprobación a toda costa de la llamada Ley Televisa. “La aprobación a las reformas de a la Ley Federal de Radio y Televisión y a la de Telecomunicaciones significa para México uno de los retrocesos más grandes en la construcción de nuestra democracia”, dice Aleida Calleja, de la Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias (AMARC) en sus reflexio-nes sobre el tema. En un texto publicado inicialmente en su columna editorial para la revista Proceso, con el significativo nombre “Paisaje después de la batalla”, la politóloga Denise Dresser recuerda la triste y dura lección sobre la política mexicana contemporá-nea que aprendieron varios de sus estudiantes que fueron testigos de las reuniones de la Comisión de Comunicaciones y Transportes en el Senado de la República en marzo de 2006. A su vez, en sus “Apuntes sobre los contenidos de da la Ley Federal de Radio y Televisión”, Damián Loreti, experto en legislación internacional de los medios elec-trónicos, desarrolla algunos principios básicos e internacionalmente reconocidos para una legislación plural en la materia." (Editorial)
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"The reorganisation of radio broadcasting in the five Arab countries we have looked at is a slow, unequal, up-and-down and unfinished process. It is unfinished in that some states (Egypt and Syria), still have not published the conditions for awarding broadcasting licenses, even though some independ
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ent stations have received authorisation. The beneficiary stations thus have no real legal status, but are private businesses broadcasting music, and refraining from broadcasting news. The stations seem to be of most benefit to businessmen close to the authorities, and are more a part of the process of State privatisation than media democratisation. There is a general lack of transparency, and very little information is available about these radio stations. Journalists know little about the shareholders, working conditions in the stations and how they are organised. The legal vacuum will no doubt eventually be filled in these two countries. But, for the time being, radio broadcasting in Egypt and Syria remains totally under the control of the authorities. Lebanon is a special case. By allowing radio and television stations to be privately owned, Lebanon has essentially brought an existing state of affairs within the law, since these independent stations did not wait for the 1996 law to be passed before going on the air. Nevertheless, the various attempts to prevent religious interests from controlling the media have so far failed, and the political stations are a direct mirror of the country’s religious polarities. Every political/religious party has its own radio station (and television channel), which it uses to support its political choices. And the only non-religious station, Sawt Al-Shab, is close to the Lebanese Communist Party. Despite their vulnerability, the Palestinian and Jordanian experiments are without doubt the most promising. The legal framework is restrictive, in these two countries, but the privatelyowned stations are pushing back the boundaries of news broadcasting, are helping to render the media more autonomous, and introducing a relative degree of democracy in the field of information. But these experiments remain dependent on the unstable political context and resulting legal restrictions. The new legislation is more favourable to entertainment stations and benefits businessmen close to the authorities, leaving little space for civil society radio projects to develop." (Conclusion, page 42)
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"Dans cette région d'Afrique, dont plusieurs pays ont connu, au cours des dernières années, des conflits violents ou des troubles importants, l'outil radiophonique joue un rôle essentiel dans les processus de reconstruction et de consolidation démocratique. A travers cet ouvrage, nous souhaiton
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s fournir aux acteurs du pluralisme radiophonique en Afrique centrale, aux partenaires au developpement, aux autorités publiques et aux associations professionnelles, un état des lieux des législations en vigueur, pays par pays, mais aussi de leur degré d'application, des éventuelles difficultés constatées et des expériences positives à souligner." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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