Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has deployed a political and legal defense this Tuesday of the new guidelines on audience rights. The controversy generated by the issue in recent days has escalated to the president’s morning conference. After several days of criticism and expressions of concern from media, specialists, civil organizations, and the opposition, who have warned of risks to freedom of expression in Mexico, the Government defends that it will not decide what is true nor sanction journalistic content.
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Sheinbaum has said that the guidelines aim to strengthen the audience’s right to receive information and not to establish a censorship mechanism. “Just as the Government has to be transparent, the media also have to have a code of ethics to guarantee the right to information,” she said from the National Palace.
The presidential intervention comes after the public consultation launched by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, promoted by the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency, which has unleashed an intense discussion about the scope of the new obligations for radio and television concessionaires. The most controversial point has been the requirement to distinguish between information and opinion and the possibility that this obligation could lead, according to its critics, to indirect intervention in editorial work.
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Legal advisor Luisa María Alcalde has also responded to the criticisms about the guidelines that will lead to a new law. The official has explained the content of the guidelines and insisted that the sanctions provided do not fall on the disseminated content, but exclusively on administrative obligations. According to her, the only behaviors subject to sanction are the absence of a code of ethics, the failure to designate a person as audience defender, or not providing users with mechanisms to file complaints. “Content is not sanctioned,” she insisted as part of the defense of the issue.
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