Colombia. As part of the strategy to strengthen the media, carried out by the MINISTRY of ICT, Minister Karen Abudinen announced the approval of an article in the Budget and Revenue Law to support the digital transformation strategy of the country's media: press, radio and television.
For Minister Abudinen, this article is fundamental for the economic reactivation of the country, which has been led by the government of President Iván Duque.
"In the Budget and Revenue Law, a new article was included so that during the budget term corresponding to the year 2021, the Single Fund for Information and Communications Technologies can finance, with more than $85,000 million, the implementation of plans, programs and projects to promote and support the digital transformation of the media, at any stage of the business," said Minister Karen Abudinen.
Measures to support the media
The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affected all the productive sectors of the country, including the media. The National Government, aware of this situation, has implemented several strategies to continue supporting the work of commercial and public interest radios, public television channels, and community stations, a key action for democracy.
With the Law of Modernization of the ICT sector, sanctioned in July 2019 by President Iván Duque, he proposed an important path for the strengthening of the media. For example, this regulation, also known as the 1978 Law of July 25, 2019, created a new financing model (Single ICT Fund) for public television and radio, guaranteeing the real increase of its budget each year and encouraging the creation of multiplatform content, thus promoting the preservation of national and regional culture and identity.
The Single ICT Fund has been a key tool in strengthening the budget of public television, especially during the health emergency. This is demonstrated by the figures, because according to the ICT Ministry, President Iván Duque has allocated during this 2020 the highest investment in the history of public TV and the audiovisual industry, allocating a budget of
$291.5 billion to modernize its infrastructure, strengthen its contents and train human resources.
In addition, Decree 658 and 680 of May 2020 was issued, which postpones, until 2021, the payment periods of: compensation to private open TV, the concession of the television service, the frequency of the spectrum for television service, community sound broadcasting, radio sound broadcasting of public interest and commercial sound broadcasting, that must make the Single Fund for Information and Communications Technologies (FUTIC), an estimated value of approximately 50,000 million.
Strengthening community broadcasters
For the National Government, community broadcasters are an important and necessary tool to bring information to all corners of the national territory. For this reason, in October of this year, the Senate of the Republic approved in the last debate the bill by which "special conditions are established for the normalization of the portfolio for a single time, for the concessionaires of sound radio broadcasting of public and community interest".
This bill, which is awaiting presidential approval, will be able to host community and public interest broadcasters and community television operators, which to date have outstanding balances with the Single ICT Fund. For the Government, this is a key measure, taking into account that as of September 30, 2020, the portfolio balance that will be normalized is approximately $4,396 million for stations, while for community television operators it is around $2,363 million.
Meanwhile, with the aim of guaranteeing the operation and sustainability of public, community and commercial broadcasters in the country during the pandemic, MinTIC issued Decree No.680 of May 21, 2020, which allows the deferral of the payments that these operators must make to the Single Fund for Information and Communications Technologies (FUTIC) until 2021, in such a way as to guarantee the provision of this essential public service allowing its survival and operation.
On the other hand, from the ICT portfolio, the strengthening strategy 'Tuned in to the Radio' was designed, with which meetings led by Minister Karen Abudinen and the members of the stations have been advanced. The first meeting was attended by the 625 stations that currently operate in the country. In the second, which was carried out from Antioquia, more than 2,000 listeners were connected in 101 stations.
Additionally, and as part of this strategy, the government has been carrying out training days with the country's broadcasters. The first meeting was held on August 24, in which more than 500 stations participated in a five-hour day. The second meeting, which took place on September 24, provided knowledge on how it is possible to have a community radio station in the country. 200 applicants participated and it had experts from MinTIC and the ANE.
At the beginning of November, the ICT Ministry held Radio Fest 2020, one of the largest virtual training and strengthening events for community broadcasters in the country, to which nearly 900 people were connected to access academic talks led by renowned journalists and experts in the field.
Incentives for the production of audiovisual content
Another measure adopted by the Ministry of ICT to support the audiovisual guild affected by the covid-19 pandemic, was to launch the strategy 'Great stories with small cameras', which selected 300 winners with a stimulus of $ 12 million per project to tell stories representative of the region of origin or residence of the creators, recorded with cell phones or any other portable device. For this call, the ICT portfolio allocated $3.6 billion pesos, which was launched through Canal Trece.
In the same way, the five audiovisual calls were opened, which, with an investment of 23,664 million pesos, managed to finance 81 projects of new audiovisual productions of micro, small, medium and large producers, community channels and indigenous producers and NARP (Negros, Afros, Raizales and Palenqueros).
In the continuous work of strengthening the audiovisual sector, the National Government has made important efforts, which are materialized in historical investments that exceed more than $330 billion in the last two years.
