In 2011, the General Law of Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technologies established that radio and television frequencies should be allocated as follows: 33% for each commercial use and state media, and 17% for each community media and media outlets serving indigenous people.
Sistema Nacional de Radio de los Pueblos Originarios (RPO) is a radio chain that serves the “indigenous people” category as defined by law. The chain consists of 51 radio channels that broadcast in several languages. The new Socialist government that has been in place since 2020 has promised to reinstate the licenses for a number of these stations, which, according to state officials, had to cease their broadcasting in recent years.
Media assets
Radio: RPO
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM)
Ownership and governance
RPO, like all state media in Bolivia, is dependent on the Ministry of the Presidency, which is led by the country’s president.
After a change in government in 2020, the then-newly elected authorities, led by the Socialist Party (MAS), restructured the management of all state media in Bolivia, indicating the government’s intention to solidify its control over the state media.
Source of funding and budget
In 2018, RPO received 2.3 million bolivianos (US$ 340,000) from the state budget, which is RPO’s sole source of funding, according to our data from local journalists. In July 2023, the government announced a cash injection of 25 million bolivianos (US$ 3.5 million) to strengthen the operations of the RPO’s stations across Bolivia. This came after a few years during which RPO received no funds, as the Jeanine Añez government temporarily shut down these channels.
Editorial independence
The RPO is under the authority of the Ministry of Presidency, which has some influence on the chain’s editorial independence. However, since RPO consists of multiple stations, each with its own autonomy, it is challenging for the presidential office to control the editorial direction of every individual broadcaster. There have been no recent incidents indicating that the stations are under the editorial control of the government.
No domestic statute or independent assessment mechanism to validate the independence of RPO’s stations has been identified.
July 2024