The president of the Permanent Commission of Communications Media of the Chamber of Deputies, Elpidio Báez, and the spokesman for the block of deputies of the People’s Force, Rubén Maldonado, rejected this morning the organic bill on the right to privacy, honor, good name and image itself, because it conflicts with the Constitution of the Republic.
They also agreed that the piece has to be thoroughly revised and the articles that are unconstitutional corrected, such as the establishment of the prior censorship regime.
“I can assure you that this project in the Chamber of Deputies will not pass, we are going to make the necessary corrections, the Chamber of Deputies is the most democratic representation in the country, we are defenders of democracy and freedom of expression is a right essential,” he said. Baez.
He added that “the project of the senator from Baoruco, Melania Salvador, is contrary to the Constitution, the constitutional text establishes that in the country there cannot be prior censorship to issue ideas, to express themselves freely, evidently that when colliding with the Charter Magna has no chance of being approved.”
Báez explained that as soon as it reaches the Media Commission, they will submit it to a constitutional technical review to correct any attack that this text contains against one of the fundamental rights on which the democratic system rests, which is freedom of expression.
He argued that democracy guarantees free access to information for citizens and communication professionals.
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“Everything that can and threatens to put a gag on the media to prevent them from fulfilling the function of seeking information and disclosing it to society, we are totally opposed and obviously we will subject these regulations to a rigorous examination,” he said. .
Ruben Maldonado
The spokesman for the People’s Force in the Lower House rejects any attempt to restrict freedom of expression.
However, he considered that in what has to do with the management of social networks, certain parameters must be set because many people who are not communication professionals acquire a cell phone through which they publish anything without measuring the consequences and without determining whether they are complying with the principles that regulate the practice of journalism.
“Freedom of expression cannot under any circumstances be curtailed because it is a fundamental principle of democracy, when freedom of information goes, democracy also goes and dictatorship arrives,” warned Deputy Maldonado.
