Argentine lower house approves media reform law

* Media bill approved after changes, now moves to Senate

* Opposition walks out to protest the bill

* Leftist Latin American leaders at odds with media

By Luis Andres Henao

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Argentina's lower house of Congress approved on Thursday a broadcast reform bill being pushed by President Cristina Fernandez that critics say will increase state control over the media.

The bill, which supporters defend saying it will make the airwaves more democratic, will now be sent to the Senate, where it could face closer scrutiny.

More than 100 opposition lawmakers walked out of the lower house vote to protest the bill, which has pitted Fernandez against the Grupo Clarin (CLA.BA) media group in her latest showdown with a powerful business sector.

Lawmakers voted 146 to 3 early Thursday morning after more than 14 hours of acrimonious debate and opponents stormed out.

Center-left leader Fernandez says her reform of decades-old media regulations will restrict the number of licenses controlled by dominant media players and allow smaller players and non-profit groups more access to broadcast frequencies.

Critics say her main motive is to crush the influential Grupo Clarin conglomerate, and opposition politicians question elements of the reform such as the way the state will be able to assign frequencies in small cities and towns.

Opposition lawmakers who boycotted the vote said the government had rushed the bill through committee without proper review.

"It's a farce. There has not been a proper debate of something that is a transcendent law ... we couldn't even finish reading it," Deputy Adrian Perez, head of the Civic Coalition opposition party in the lower house, told TN television.

DISPUTE WITH MEDIA GROUP

Fernandez and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, have been locked in a bitter dispute with Grupo Clarin since its news outlets criticized their confrontation with farmers last year over taxes on grains exports.

Fernandez, who has an uncompromising style and has increased state control over parts of the economy, tried to smooth passage of the law by removing a controversial clause that would have allowed some telephone companies to enter the cable television business.

She said eliminating that element of the bill should dispel opposition concerns that telecommunication companies would become too dominant in telephone, cable and Internet all together.

But center-right parties, the center-left Civic Coalition and dissident members of Fernandez's own Peronist party were not swayed by the changes to the law and made a failed attempt to delay the vote until December when a new Congress will be seated, and Fernandez will lose her majority.

Left-wing leaders in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have in recent years strengthened state media and warred with traditional newspapers and broadcasters that have given their administrations deeply negative coverage.

In Venezuela, socialist President Hugo Chavez has shut down radio stations and denied renewal of broadcast licenses.

Fernandez's reform is not seen as radical and she could succeed in pushing it through Congress.

"Approval in the Senate will be difficult but, at this point, we believe the Senate will likely end up approving the bill, perhaps after further concessions from the government," said Daniel Kerner, a Latin America analyst for the Eurasia group. (Writing by Fiona Ortiz and Kevin Gray; Editing by Kieran Murray)