Argentina’s senate on Saturday passed a controversial broadcasting bill containing provisions that could damage media freedom in the country.

The senate passed the “Audiovisual Communication Law” – a bill ostensibly aimed at increasing plurality in the country’s media – by 44 votes to 24, following a debate that started at around 10.30am local time on Friday 9 October and lasted until 2.30am the following morning.

Articles 12 to 14 relate to 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 able to strongly influence 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 vulnerable to political influence.

Amendments to the draft law in mid-September allowing the board to sit until 2013 mean that the effect of the current government’s actions on media freedom could 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 licenses to “providers using the radio-electric spectrum,” i.e., all non-satellite broadcasters, leaving the distribution of such licenses open to political influence.

Article 38, meanwhile, limits the number of television and radio licenses that one sole owner may hold to 10. This would retroactively affect companies that renewed current licenses in recent years and oblige them to sell their authorisations, potentially at much lower prices than those at which they were bought.

Opposition parties are already aligning to take on the new law when parliament changes this December, following legislative elections earlier this year.

“In December we are going to see if the will is to repeal the law completely, or change some articles. My opinion is that it’s necessary to repeal it,” said Oscar Aguad, leader of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) bloc, according to the daily Clarín.

Francisco de Narváez of the ‘Republican Proposal’ alliance said that the law “is not a good law,” and that it was an attempt to “change peoples’ opinions by conditioning information,” while ‘Civic Coalition’ parliamentary bloc leader Adrián Perez said it is necessary to “discuss modifications to the most criticised and harmful themes of this law, which were not considered by the government,” said Clarín.

“We are disappointed that the law was passed in its current form, and hope that the troubling issues are dealt with before they are applied against the media,” said IPI Director David Dadge.