And as the Minister with responsibility for broadcasting, the media asked Briceño about the criticism surrounding the proposed new broadcasting bill, particularly as it relates to concerns of online censorship.
He explained that it's not about that, but rather it's about regulating the online pages purporting to be news outlets, competing in the local advertising market and collecting revenue. Here's how he explained it:
Reporter:
"Is this about censorship?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"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 kind 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."
