PM Briceño Says Broadcasting Bill Is Not Censorship

Prime Minister John Briceño is defending the controversial Broadcasting Bill, saying it is not an attempt to silence anyone. Instead, he says the proposed legislation targets social media-based news platforms that generate revenue while operating outside the rules that govern established media houses. Briceño argues that if online outlets are reporting news and selling ads, they should also be held accountable like everyone else in the media landscape.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“There’s nothing about censorship. I don’t know how you can come to that. I think the big thing about the broadcasting authority is now all of these online media blogs or whatever that are taking advertisements and everything, they have to be held to the same standards that you are being held. You all are at a disadvantage competing with these bloggers. These bloggers go online and they hear something and just put it out there without even checking if it is so or not so and all kinds of things, and they are collecting revenues. They’re providing kind of like a service to the public and they need to be held to the same journalistic standards that you at Love and KREM, Channel 7, Channel 5 are being held to, and that’s the main part of it. Technology has changed, so we can’t continue using the same legislation that was addressing technology of the 1990s. We have to keep up with that, so it has absolutely nothing to do with censorship.”

 

The proposed bill remains in the consultation phase.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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