Media advertisement
Peruvian mainstream news media are highly commercialized. There is one state-owned TV channel, one radio station and one newspaper; all other news outlets are privately owned. As well, none of the mass media are owned by the political parties. According to Patrón Galindo, the mass media are highly critical of all politicians and parties, actively searching for corruption scandals (2010). Lack of recurring support of specific parties by specific media platforms shows high independence of mass media from political powers. At the same time, politics always remains a hot topic of discussion. We will see in the media review chapter that the most discussed topics in the media are exactly the corruption scandals. The 1993 Constitution guarantees for all political parties free access to state-owned mass media with time limits dependent on the last general election results. The provision of air time (franja electoral) is governed by the same 2003 Electoral Law. All political parties are given free air time between 30 and 2 days prior to elections. In the last 48 hours before elections the law forbids all political advertising. State reduces the transmission fees for TV and radio stations proportionally to the air-time given to parties, as well as provides radio and television facilities for production purposes. 50 percent of the time is distributed evenly between all running parties, and 50 percent proportionally to the representation in Congress. Parties running for the first time get the same air time as the party with the lowest representation. There are as well regulations on paid advertisement. The rates on political advertisement during the campaign period cannot be higher than average advertisement rates. Political advertisement can only appear between 60 and 10 days before the elections, for five minutes per day total in all media.
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