A Prohibited and Persecuted Specter / Fernando Dámaso

Photo: Peter Deel

In an article published in the official national press, of course, about the radio spectrum spaces, under the suggestive title of “Bandits against radio-electronic sovereignty,” we note that the material has been prepared on request by the journalist who signs it, because the data offered on offenses and crimes are not in the public domain, not to mention that it is written in a scolding and threatening style.

The protection of the radio spectrum spaces is a task for the State in any country in the world, which doesn’t mean that it prohibits its use by citizens, under the absurd pretext that it is an act of national security, and a powerful shield for the defense of sovereignty.

In a world increasingly integrated and globalized, the old concept of sovereignty has fallen quite into disuse. Using the pretext of yore, teams like DIRECTV satellite receivers, DISNETWORK satellite dishes, BLACKBERRY cellular, satellite cards, computer towers, hard drives, etc. that anywhere in the world can be purchased legally, here are illegal and even granted the status of enemy weapons.

It’s nothing new: short-wave radios (absent in our stores), tape recorders, typewriters and even paper and pens, as in the sadly remembered Black Spring of 2003, have also been so classified.

To perform the important task of enforcing the prohibitions in the country there is a so-called Control and Supervision Agency, assigned to the Ministry of Informatics and Communications, which provides staff and technical resources for this. I suppose that with the rapid technological development worldwide, where each day brings computers and sophisticated communications, the task will not be easy, in addition to lacking a future. To try, in the XXI Century, to raise a curtain against access to information, is wasting time and resources.

In the update of the model they have recently been rescinded old prohibitions relating to self-employment and the purchase and sale of cars and homes. Why not do the same with these? They are so absurd as to be rendered ineffective. Furthermore, they could obtain similar results by: removing the illegalities.

If citizens can access the media they want and need, so as to not fall behind in today’s world, buying them in a shop, not going to some bandit who offers them on the black market, or stealing or diverting them from state facilities. The reasoning is simple. In all the sports facilities an old slogan appears: “Sport, the Right of the People.” Why not also the INTERNET? If anything, I believe, we will not have to wait another 53 years to eliminate these arbitrary prohibitions. Just give it time.

November 22 2011