Colombia. Promoting convergence between ICT, television and sound broadcasting is the basis of the Draft Law that the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC) presented to the Congress of the Republic.
This initiative seeks that the regulator responds to the current dynamics of the sector, and facilitates the relationship between the agents of the same, as well as between users and the State. To this end, the project defines the creation of a convergent, independent regulatory body that exercises powers with respect to ICT, TV and sound broadcasting, which will be born from the transformation of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) into a national state agency, of a special nature, called the Communications Commission. Likewise, the liquidation of the National Television Authority (ANTV) and the distribution of competences in the field of television and sound broadcasting are established.
The project contemplates that the convergent regulatory body has legal personality, administrative, patrimonial, budgetary and technical autonomy, and that it is part of the ICT sector without being attached or linked to said Portfolio. The Communications Commission will be composed of five commissioners, appointed for fixed terms of six years, which do not coincide with the presidential ones, and without the possibility of re-election. Two of these commissioners will be appointed by the President of the Republic, while the other three will be selected by universities on behalf of civil society.
For the transition to that new agency, the current members of the National Television Board and the commissioners of the CRC will serve on the Board of the Communications Commission until the expiration of their 4-year terms, at which time they will be replaced by five members appointed and selected in the terms established in the bill.
In addition to the regulation, the Communications Commission will have the power to grant concessions in television and sound broadcasting, and to administer the Fund for the Development of TV, which, despite the liquidation of the ANTV, will continue to guarantee the sustainability of public television.
As established in the project, the competences of the sector will be distributed as follows: MinTIC will continue to be the rector of the policy and in charge of the surveillance and control of ICT, TV and sound broadcasting; the Communications Commission will be responsible for the regulation and granting of concessions; the National Spectrum Agency (ANE) will be the advisory body in the management of the electromagnetic spectrum in ICT, radio and TV; the ICT Ministry, for its part, will have the functions of surveillance and control of the sector, except in matters related to the protection of the rights of users and the competition regime, which will continue to be in charge of the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce.
The Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies thanked UNESCO for its accompaniment in this process of institutional adjustment, which complies with international standards and guarantees respect for fundamental rights, especially freedom of expression.
This bill must take four debates before the Senate and the House of Representatives, and then pass to presidential sanction.
The ICT Ministry thanked the industry for the observations and participation in the construction of this important initiative. Accompanying the establishment of the project were Gale Mallol, President of AsoTIC; Tulio Ángel, President of Asomedios; Gustavo Galvis, President of Andesco; Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez, President of Asomóvil; Andrea Ramos, representing Andi, and Joan Bocanegra, representing ACIEM. Likewise, Senators Andrés García, Sandra Villadiego, Ángel Custodio Cabrera, Guillermo Santos, Rosmery Martínez and Jorge Prieto participated as co-authors of the project, as well as representatives Diego Patiño, Jorge Eliécer Tamayo, Iván Darío Agudelo, Freddy Anaya, Jaime Felipe Lozada and Pablo Alba.
