The executive arm of Argentina’s government is seeking to pass a telecommunications bill before the line-up of the country’s parliament changes in December. The draft law, containing media freedom-threatening provisions that would affect television and radio broadcasters, comes amid broader concern about increased government pressure on the media.

The executive sent the draft “Audiovisual Communication Law” (Ley de Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual), ostensibly intended to replace media legislation promulgated in September 1980 under one of Argentina’s military dictatorships, to Congress on 27 August of this year.

According to local media, however, in an effort to see the bill passed before 10 December – the date when parliament’s line-up will change to reflect the results of elections earlier this year – the government limited the number of parliamentary commissions set to examine the law to three: the Commission for Budget and Finance (Comisión de Presupuesto), the Commission for Communications (Comisión de Comunicación) and, under pressure from opposition politicians and media organisations, the Commission on Freedom of Expression (Comisión de Libertad de Expresión).

Many local experts reportedly believe the controversial draft should have been subjected to closer scrutiny, including analysis by the Commission for Constitutional Affairs (Comisión de Asuntos Constitucionales).

According to Argentinean daily Clarín, however, the three parliamentary commissions signed the draft off on Tuesday despite the reported absence of some opposition commission members.

Clarín reported that the bill was to be debated in parliament as of Wednesday.

The draft “Audiovisual Communication Law” contains provisions that pose a threat to media freedom.

For example, Articles 12 to 14 describe the creation of a new control body, the “Federal Authority on Audiovisual Communication Services” (Autoridad Federal de Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual), responsible for interpreting and applying the law. The executive would be heavily involved in the designation of the members of the seven-person panel – selecting two, including its president, and having final say on the other five – leaving it open to political influence.

Furthermore, according to amendments made to the draft on Tuesday, the board will sit until 2013, meaning that the effect of the current government’s actions on media freedom could in theory extend well beyond the conclusion of the government’s current term, in 2011.

Article 28 of the draft states that the executive will also directly handle the allocation of licences to “providers using the radio-electric spectrum,” i.e., all non-satellite broadcasters, leaving the distribution of such licences open to political influence.

Article 38, meanwhile, sets limits on the number of television and radio licences that one sole owner may hold. This would work retroactively, affecting companies that renewed current licences in recent years and forcing them to sell their authorisations, potentially at much lower prices than those at which they were bought.

“We are extremely concerned at the opportunity created under the current draft legislation for political pressure on broadcasters,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “We urge Argentinean legislators not to pass this bill in its current form.”

Local media and media-related organisations have also voiced concern over the bill’s content and treatment in parliament, and some view it as part of an increase in government pressure on the private media.

A joint statement issued on 10 September after a meeting of 13 major Argentinean media organisations and the Inter American Press Association warned of the “risks that the draft entails for the existence of plural spaces that can guarantee the free circulation of information.

“Far from achieving diversity, these regulations carry with them censorship that will restrict the supply of content to citizens,” the statement said.

The statement was issued on the same day that over 100 tax inspectors conducted a surprise raid on the headquarters of Argentine daily Clarín.

Clarín has been highly critical of the draft law, and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Ricardo Kirschbaum, described the surprise raid to Reuters as “intimidation” and “harassment.”