Argentina. In response to two organizations that bring together several community media that delivered a petition, the National Communications Agency, ENACOM, responded by indicating some outstanding figures in the sector.
In its response, Enacom highlights that that same day the board approved 64 projects of new Fomeca beneficiaries for an amount of 39 million pesos, which is not an isolated event, but is part of a transparent and sustained policy to manage the Fund for the Competitive Promotion of Audiovisual Communication (FOMECA) in favor of the plurality of voices.
"This incentive program for the community sector is part of a process promoted by the National Government that, since the beginning of the administration, is committed to guaranteeing Argentines the full exercise of freedom of expression, the empire of diversity of opinions and unrestricted access to public information," he said in his communication.
He added that since the restart of the program and, at the end of the current year, Enacom will have awarded more than 450 million pesos of Fomeca funds. This assignment is carried out without any discrimination, since it is based on objective criteria. Proof of this transparent and objective distribution of Funds can be provided by the 93 entities that had never obtained support from the Agency.
Between 2016 and 2018 there were 60 media incorporated and in 2019 there are already 33 organizations that access FOMECA Funds for the first time, thus achieving greater diversity and federalism in the base of beneficiaries reached. In addition, the existing lines were reformulated and new lines were created to ensure the inclusion of all social and community sectors.
The entity also worked on the planning and development of simplified competitions, with the incorporation of the Distance Procedures (TAD) system, with highly trained and independent juries that prioritized the quality and scope of the projects without discriminating editorial line or political affinity for the election of the winners.
Training days were also developed, such as the most recent one held in Santiago del Estero, to facilitate the presentation of Fomeca initiatives and contests by indigenous peoples. These days are held in different provinces as part of a constant work so that the award of the contests has a federal participation, guaranteeing the access of all the community media of the country.
The Fomeca Funds are for Enacom a tool that allows redistributing the resources that come from the audiovisual media through the taxes established by law to allocate them to the promotion of community media, border radios and media of indigenous peoples.
From Enacom, as expressed above, special attention is paid to all recipients, so we can mention as an example, the allocation of resources to the media included in the FARCO Network for $ 51,427,604; members of the CONTA Network for $30,358,409 and members of the AMARC Network for $15,564,483.
Likewise, also as an example, other benefited media stand out, such as the Popular Alternative Foundation in Social Communication, with 7 projects awarded and $6,154,089 pesos, Futura Comunicación Popular with $2,909,004 for 7 projects awarded, the Civil Association Retamo 6 projects awarded with $2,817,416, the Civil Association El Hormiguero for Equality and Freedom, with 7 projects awarded and $ 2,711,096, the Civil Association Of Labor, Education and Culture (Barricada TV), with 4 projects awarded for $ 6,671,235, the Solidarity Work Cooperative limited with 9 projects awarded and $ 10,301,828, the PPR Limited Work Cooperative with 6 projects awarded and $ 7,583,913, the Pars Limited Work Cooperative with 5 projects awarded and $ 7,439,913 and the Civil Association Rehabilitation Center San Martín (Urbana TV) that with 5 projects awarded received $ 6,919,598, among others.
Finally, the entity stressed that "Enacom has always complied with community media through the realization of unobjectionable contests in order to provide support for processes of technological updating, management improvements and production of content of radios, channels and producers of community media."
