The Supreme Court of Justice ruled that a cautionary measure filed by Grupo Clarín which suspended article 161 of the Media Law will expire on December 7th, but clarified that the cautionary measures cannot substitute a long term solution.
In an unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court stated that cautionary measures like the one filed by Grupo Clarín aiming to avoid article 161 of the Media Law -which would force them to sell several of their media outlet,-are «precarious resolutions» and cannot replace a long term solution «because they affect judicial safety.»
The cautionary measure was first filed by the multimedia group in October 2009, following the approval of the new media law. The State appealed before an appeals court, which confirmed that Clarín’s request was only to stop article 161 from being enforced.
The National State filed a request to the Supreme Court which was later dismissed due to the lack of a definitive sentence. However, judges deemed it convenient to set a reasonable time frame to the cautionary measure.
Despite the fact that in November 2010 a judge repealed the setting of a date, the appeals court set a 36 month validity to the cautionary measure, beginning when the measure was filed.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the cautionary measure will be valid until December 7th, 2012. Following that date, powerful grupo Clarín will have to abide by article 161 of the Media Law, which states that a company will not be able to own basic tv and cable tv channel at the same time. Grupo Clarín owns, among others, 13 channel, TN cable news channel, and Volver.
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