Argentine president scraps media-monopoly watchdog

Argentine president scraps media-monopoly watchdog
By AFP 6 hours ago .

Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Wednesday scrapped a media watchdog aimed at preventing monopolies, his office said, the latest in a series of reforms reversing measures by his leftist predecessor.

Macri's chief of staff Marco Pena said that by presidential decree a new state telecommunications body would be set up, absorbing the existing AFSCA regulator that prevents monopolies by media firms and the AFTIC technology regulator.

"We are launching policies for the 21st century. The war against journalism is over," Pena told a news conference.

A 2009 media law introduced by Macri's predecessor Cristina Kirchner aimed to break up what she described as media monopolies. It established AFSCA to grant and regulate broadcast licenses.

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