Education Minister Dolores Cristina, who is also responsible for the national Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), has said that the government was consulting the Broadcasting Authority (BA) in drafting criteria which broadcasting stations had to follow to qualify for the digital platform.
She was speaking in the debate in second reading on the Bill amending the Broadcasting Act to extend further pluralism and permit the licensing of a general interest objective network operator and general interest broadcasting content licensees.
The stations qualifying for the digital platform could not be purely commercial and had to allocate 30 per cent of broadcasting time to programmes with a cultural, educational or religious content, children’s, discussion and current affairs programmes among others.
There was also the possibility of niche stations like Education 22.
Minister Cristina announced that her ministry was looking forward to an agreement with PBS so that the national station and Education 22 would follow the same direction. Such an agreement would lead to an increased synergy leading to an upgrade in standards in Education 22 broadcasting.
She also said that stations would pay PBS such fees to cover the expenses made by PBS to manage the digital platform. PBS was not looking at this venture in commercial terms.
The EU was positive on innovative technology and had decided that most member states had to switch from the analogue to the digital network by the end of 2012. This meant that audiences had the right of access to a number of TV stations on the digital platform without paying any fees.
Minister Cristina refuted opposition criticism against PBS claiming that such censure was unjust and showed that some MPs were still living in a time warp. PBS programmes were appreciated by audiences which far outnumbered the audiences that followed other local TV stations, she argued.
The audio visual media was an emerging industry which created jobs and had a positive impact on the economy through independent producing houses. This sector had to be supported through training opportunities.
The national broadcasting policy aimed at making the sector economically viable while respecting its ethos of providing a public service. Media education had to be given due importance in schools to make up for the democratic deficit.
Ms Cristina said the government had the will to increase pluralism in broadcasting. It was the present government that had launched cable and digital terrestrial television together with mobile telephony, satellite and internet technology.
It was today possible to have radio and TV stations using the same frequencies. There were eight television and 13 radio stations on national frequencies and 24 other community radio stations.
Minister Cristina said that when the Bill became law it would be completing a revolution in liberalising the broadcasting sector. The amendments gave audiences to more access to resources and programmes safeguarding their rights under the EU convention.
She concluded that all this strengthened the national broadcasting policy which looked at sustainable development with a clear direction for success.