Social impact on communication laws and policies making process in Latin America

MARÍA SOLEDAD SEGURA

Conferencia; IAMCR Conference 2015; 2015

Communication law and policy-making processes in Latin America havehistorically been captured by political and economic elites. These elite-captured media policies primarily benefit private companiesand governments in call rather than the public good. Consequently, mediasystems in the region offer restricted opportunities for diverse people,perspectives and issues bounded by commercial priorities interests andgovernment designs. Adverse conditions for pluralism are grounded in thestructure and the functioning of both markets and states. The domination of themarket model of Latin American media systems has relegated non-commercial andpublic interest media to a marginal position particular amidst ownership andfunding concentration. The state also contributed to undermining mediapluralism by failing to guarantee suitable conditions for different forms ofexpression. The persistence of laws restricting critical speech coupled withthe tenuous respect for basic democratic rights in areas plagued by violencefurther weakened media pluralism. Nevertheless, recent communication laws and policies reforms showunusual civic participation and social impact. Their demands can be joined intwo groups: the ones that tend to reduce the historical dominance of privatesector in media systems; and the others that try to reduce the states controlof information and expression. In the first group, there are movements tendingto regulate media property, limit property concentration, and legalizecommunity and native media. The second group includes organizations aiming toregulate information access, official advertising and public media,decriminalize slander and revoke disrespect laws. Our questions are:1)         Which of these two typesof demands have had more impact on communication law and policy-makingprocesses in Latin America countries during last 15 years?2)         Which were theconditions and the organizational strategies that made it possible? First, we present some theoretical discussions. Then, we characterizethe different civic demands. Third, we identify which of them succeeded totranslate in new communication laws and policies. Finally, we try to explainthe successes or failures, comparing political opportunities and strategies ofcivil organizations that supported those demands.