The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, denounced this Thursday an alleged censorship against him, after a judicial and an administrative authority put limits on his frequent and prolonged televised speeches on national television.
“The President of the Republic of Colombia has been censored. He is forbidden to speak on television. What they didn’t do to any president, they are doing to me just because I don’t belong to the oligarchy but to the people,” Petro stated on his X account.
According to the president, it is an “attempt by the mafias to regain power” because “they are scared by the advance of the constituent and popular power in the country”, and for this reason he added: “I invite all national and international jurists who want to accompany me to break the censorship in Colombia”.
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Petro made the complaint after the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) decided that it “does not authorize the issuance of a presidential address requested” by the Presidency for Wednesday, October 15 in the evening, to talk about coca crops.
The CRC made that determination based on a ruling by the Council of State that ordered that each intervention by the president on television channels, both public and private, must meet a series of requirements for justification, relevance, and duration, when ruling on a tutela action filed by five citizens who requested that their right to information be protected.
This happens because extensive speeches by the president on any topic, including broadcasts of his council of ministers, have become habitual on the national network, often during prime-time television hours.
In its ruling, the Council of State – the highest authority in administrative litigation – established that the President’s “interventions or speeches” “must respond to a sufficient justification or reason, which implies that the request must correspond to urgent circumstances.”
It was also stated that “the presidential address cannot be recurring” and “must be limited thematically and temporally”.
The Council of State also ordered the CRC to “verify compliance with the aforementioned criteria” and that, if the Presidency’s request does not comply with the regulations, “prevent its realization, in accordance with the reasons expressed”.
However, Petro argued today that “the CRC is not an entity to determine what is urgent and what is not” and said that the magistrates of the ruling may disagree with his opinions, “but they should never have broken the constitution with a prior censorship explicitly prohibited by it.”
“The CRC specifies that this decision does not limit the freedom of expression of the President of the Republic or his ability to address the country, but rather complies with the judicial mandate that orders the application of objective criteria to guarantee the reasonable, proportional, and exceptional use of the public television service,” stated the Communications Regulation Commission.
