El triunfo de la libertad negativa: Discurso parlamentario en Chile acerca de la libertad de expresión

Abstract

This article presents a thematic analysis of three parliamentary debates that are key to the topic of freedom of expression in the Chilean media since the return of democracy: the debate on the Press Law, 1993–2001; the Report of the Special Commission on Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Expression, 2007–2010; and the debate on the Digital Television Law, 2008–2014. In all three cases, the debates turned fundamentally on the central issue of the very meaning of the concept of freedom of expression: whether it should be understood in a merely negative sense—as freedom from state “interference”—or as a positive right to expression (presupposing an active state). These debates were all won by those who argued against regulation, viewing it as state intrusion against the market and thus reducing the notion of free expression to that of free enterprise.