Argentina. This was the harsh pronouncement of the Minister of Culture of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires at the launch of the Fifty Years of Cable Television in Mar del Plata. Lombardi also stressed "no one should choose for the citizen."
In a meeting with the presence of the authorities of ATVC (Argentine Association of Cable Television, ABT (Bonaerense Association of Television), ministers, deputies, councilors and personalities discussed the current situation of Cable and the media.
The capital minister also stressed "cable is a sector that worked hard for change and updating. He worked so hard, and did, that it is useless to think of an Argentine without a cable. It's like thinking we would do without the light. It is a mistake to think that this should not be on the agenda. Argentina's problem remains poverty and inequality. When we have poor institutional quality, the poor suffer the most. This debate is a debate about social reality." .
The President of ATVC, Walter Burzaco, highlighted in his speech, "Currently our activity is limited by an excessive regulatory law; and by the competition of other services governed by the same law, to which they have been granted insurmountable advantages. The service provided by a cable company needs to have an economic sustenance, and that it is independent, to continue its community work. However, the industry receives unfair competition from local public service providers and others with pan-regional or global coverage. As operators with vast experience, we understand that it is essential to adapt the media law to address future challenges. We need to understand that our companies can provide the services already provided by the Cables in Latin America, which go even beyond TV, Internet and telephony."
The Director of the AFSCA and Deputy with fulfilled mandate Gerardo Milman, said "this is not a law, it is something else, it is something born and created with a political objective. When something comes up with a political objective, we must consider what we do with that law. There has been a political investment and state money to make us believe that this law brought a revolution and there was none."
The moderator, José Crettaz, stressed that half of the "21 points for democratic broadcasting" are not met in the law, that others are not even there and that much of the law was not regulated or applied. The law did not solve old problems and created new ones, for this sector that is a school of journalism, it was for me that I started in a Cable of the province of Entre Ríos."
