Effects and Transgressions of the Law on Audiovisual Communication Services in Argentina: A Look at the State’s Role and Public Policies Between 2009 and 2015

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the Audiovisual Communication Services Law No. 26.522, enacted This article aims to analyze the Audiovisual Communication Services Law No. 26.522 (a.k.a. LSCA), passed in October 2009 in Argentina, to examine two specific concerns: to challenge how acknowledging the right to communication enabled the deployment of interventions on communication issues in the form of communication policies; and to inquire how such initiatives — implemented during the period 2009-2015, especially those aimed at the "non-profit" sector— helped set up State-deployed roles and rationalities. This examination of the categories that put together and justified State interventions at enforcing the LSCA —particularly its effects on the promotion of plurality and democracy— supports our reflection on the impact legal frameworks have had on regulating and actualizing the right to communication in modern societies. We propose a theoretical-methodological approach to recover the contributions of the "Foucaldean governmentality studies" to analyze and situate the notion of "rights" at a crossroads, where it is part both of a government and control dimension, and of a performative and productive dimension. This paper hypothesizes that Law 26.522 exceeded the frameworks of regulation, government, and order. Finally, the conclusions show that this law embodied legal transgressions not only in terms of statehood milestones, but also enabled political displacements and openings capable of articulating new emancipatory claims.