The plenary session of the Senate has given the green light this Wednesday, without any change, the audiovisual law, which has been processed by the urgent procedure, so this rule is definitively approved and will come into force with its publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
In this way, the majority of the Upper House has approved the text that came from the Congress of Deputies and has decided not to include any amendments from the proponent groups. The text has gone ahead thanks to 125 votes in favor of the PSOE, PNV, PRC and Teruel Exists; and 103 abstentions from the PP, Ciudadanos and UPN, as already happened in the process in commission.
Instead, the bill has elicited 28 votes against from ERC, VOX, Más Madrid, Junts per Cataluña, MÉS per Mallorca, Compromís, Geroa Bai, EH Bildu, Adelante Andalucía, highly critical of the refusal to introduce changes in the Senate.
12 particular votes have been taken to the Plenary of the Upper House, since the opinion of the bill was approved last week in the Commission on Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation without debating and voting on any of the 288 amendments presented by political formations such as VOX , Junts per Cataluña, Compromís, Geroa Bai, Más País, MÉS per Mallorca, EH Bildu and ERC.
The rejection of the amendments presented, including those that sought to modify the controversial definition of independent production, has provoked criticism from numerous spokespersons.
Thus, the controversial definition of an independent producer has not been modified in the end, and which provoked the rejection of numerous professionals and associations of producers in the world of cinema and television. The independent production sector even took its claims to the Cannes Festival and does not rule out going to Brussels with its claims.
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, has announced that his department is working on more changes in the audiovisual sector that would contemplate that public television “have more obligation in the purchase” of audiovisual rights. Iceta has added that he is also going to continue talking about agreements regarding the review of copyright or the tax treatment of productions.
The minister has recognized the “legitimate concern” of independent producers on a day in which the Audiovisual Law -which has been criticized by this sector- has received the green light in the Senate. “We are going to try to find a balance,” Iceta stressed, referring again to a future film law as a possible solution.
«We have what the cinema law establishes and what the audiovisual law establishes and they are two different definitions. We have tried to find a balance and, in any case, we are in a good moment of support for independent production,” said Iceta, who considers the definition of the “stricter” cinema law of this activity.
