[cma-l] Catalan Government announces support for community media (communitymedia.eu)

[Salvatore Scifo]

---Apologies for cross-posting---

Catalan Government announces support for community media
by Núria Reguero in Barcelona for www.communitymedia.eu

The General Director for the Media and Audiovisual Distribution Services 
of the Government of Catalonia, Gemma Domènech and the Ràdio Contrabanda 
and Ràdio Bronka speakersThe General Director for the Media and 
Audiovisual Distribution Services of the Regional Government of 
Catalonia, Spain, has committed to recognise the not-for-profit media 
before the end of the current legislature at the roundtable “Third 
Sector Media in Catalonia: experiences and policies”, held on 27 
November 2008 at the ECREA conference in Barcelona.

The debate, organized by the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the 
Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the European Communication 
and Research Education Association (ECREA), gathered media activists, 
researchers and politicians at the Journalists College of Catalonia to 
discuss, among other issues, the status of the implementation of Digital 
Terrestrial Television (DTT), the release of new FM frequencies and the 
inclusion of not-for-profit media in the Catalan and Spanish regulation.

The General Director for the Media and Audiovisual Distribution Services 
of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya), Gemma 
Domènech (pictured above together with the speakers from Radio 
Contrabanda and Radio Bronka), committed to recognise the Third Media 
Sector as a separate one from the public service and the private 
commercial media: “It is a great value to have not-for-profit media. I 
do not think that you are pirates and I do not want you to be illegal 
any longer. That is why the Catalan Government will start a debate next 
year with the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia and all the actors 
involved”, she stated.

Concerning the lack of frequencies granted to the Third Media Sector in 
the Catalan region, Domènech pointed out to the problem of FM radio 
spectrum saturation in Spain and argued that the Government of Catalonia 
has no competences on that matter, given that this belongs to the 
State’s General Secretary of Planning and Management of the Radio Spectrum.

Speakers and the publicSpanish practitioners are demanding distinctive 
regulation for the third sector since long time and the context seems to 
have improved recently after the approval of two amendments to the 
Spanish Law for the Protection and Promotion of the Information Society 
(Ley de Medias para la Promoción de la Sociedad de la Información, 
2007). Nevertheless, the General Director criticized the fact that this 
law only allows the legalization of TV stations that were broadcasting 
before the approval of the national law of local TV (Ley de la 
televisión local, 1995).

Specifically in Catalonia, some progresses have also been made with the 
approval of the Catalan Audiovisual Law (Llei de l’Audiovisual de 
Catalunya, 2005), which recognizes the specificity of not-for-profit 
media in the region. But, de facto, these media have been not granted 
broadcasting licenses because the licensing process was not adapted to 
the characteristics of not-for-profit media.

One of these projects is Ràdio Contrabanda, a radio station based in 
Barcelona, active since 1991 and part of the social movements of the 
city: “We have a history behind us and the citizens’ support, we do not 
aim to make financial profit, thus, we can not be treated as an station 
aiming for profit by illegal means”, remarked the station’s speaker Xavi 
Apache.

Ràdio Bronka, a station aiming to broadcast locally information not 
covered by mainstream media, and La Tele, build up by the association 
Asamblea de la Comunicación Social, are other cases that face the same 
situation as Contrabanda. La Tele has also been fined €60.000 for not 
switching off the transmissions after it was decided that that it could 
not get any license.

“We, the Third Media Sector, are citizen groups aiming to have our own 
voice through our media, and our reality is an illegal ‘limbo’ because 
we do not fit neither in the public nor in the private categories”, 
Javier García, member of the Spanish's Network of Community Media (Red 
Estatal de Medios Comunitarios) and of the Free and Community Radio 
Union of Madrid (Unión de Radios Libres y Comunitarias de Madrid), said.


Núria Reguero
Communication Institute (InCom-UAB)
Autonomous University of Barcelona

Source: 
http://www.communitymedia.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=1

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Salvatore Scifo
Editor, communitymedia.eu

www.communitymedia.eu
connecting community media research>teaching>policy>practice in Europe