The Telecommunications Law Institute (IDET) expressed concern about the proposal of the new Federal Telecommunications and broadcasting law sent by the Executive to Congress, considering that it introduces serious risks of censorship and violates international commitments assumed by Mexico in the TMEC.
In a statement, the organization warned that the institutional design is deposited only in the head of the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications (ATDT) agency, unduly annulled the powers that the Secretaries of Economy and Government has as a constitutional and legal mandate.
He affirmed that this design is in Franco shock with the constitutional reforms that were just given a couple of months ago: “Is it about the telecommunications operators annuling in court the new laws of matter? That will be the result.”
He argued that the censorship that the agency can exercise arbitrarily goes from radio, TV, digital platforms and even apps such as Tiktok, Facebook or X.
Lee: New Telecom Law must go through a rigorous technical analysis and a plural dialogue: IP
He also said that the project gives the agency the ability to define and evaluate what the communicators say: “The law establishes that the ATDT will define that it is the ‘veracity of information’. This is pure and rough censorship never before seen in Mexico.”
He warned that several articles on the operation and design of the agency are TMEC violations: “This from the regulatory mandated independence to make decisions in the TMEC, to the permissibility that companies controlled by the State are openly monopolies, in violation of the rules of competition. And finally, and perhaps the most serious to violate the TMEC the obligation to censor and/or prohibit the cross -border information sent by electronic means.”
He warned that controversies can be generated under the TMEC that will end up being lost in arbitral panels regarding issues to which Mexico promised in the field of promotion and openness for competition in telecommunications.
He added that the economic sanctions that are contemplated in the proposal, such as fines to digital platforms and apps, would also have an inhibitor effect on the operation of various services in the country.
LEE: Senate Commissions endorse in Fast Track New Telecommunications Law
“Mexico is losing an opportunity to advance its telecommunications for the benefit of the population. Hopefully open forums were made for specialist Mexicans and the world to strengthen the technological future of Mexicans and not retroce technological rights,” the IDET concluded.
Javier roof warns “much censorship” in opinion
Javier Tejado, teacher in law and specialist in telecommunications, said that the proposal implies “much censorship” against broadcasting, restricted television, digital platforms, applications and even against international informatives that are broadcast in Mexico, such as CNN, Fox, France24 or RT.
“It is a regression, product of carelessness. Nobody reviews what happens to Mrs. President? Changes are inevitable,” he said in the social network X.
Opposition legislators reject proposal
During the approval of the Senate commissions on Thursday, opposition legislators expressed their rejection.
PAN Ricardo Anaya warned that the ATDT will concentrate all the powers to decide what is transmitted in media and networks.
“This is the censorship law and the sample is article 109, which speaks of blocking some digital platform,” he said in the round of positions, according to a Senate statement.
PRI Manuel Añorve Baños indicated that his party will never accept interference from abroad, but that the noble pretext of defending migrants to advance the greatest setback of digital freedoms in decades was used.
Lee: Monreal is confident that Senate modifies telecommunications reform
“They do not want criticism because it bothers them, but with this law freedom of expression is violated. Nor Nicolás Maduro or Daniel Ortega or Hugo Chávez dared so much. It is a law of censorship and made to silence,” he said.
The emecist Alejandra Barrales Magdaleno pointed out under the pretext of regulating foreign propaganda, a hard blow to the telecommunications and broadcasting sector: “It is a law that aims to regulate the way in which Mexicans access what they see, listen or share. They speak of social media blockade, which is very dangerous.”
At the other extreme, the morenista José Antonio Cruz Álvarez Lima stressed that with this law the agency will be responsible for assuming the rectory of telecommunications and broadcasting.
When presenting the opinion on behalf of the commissions, Álvarez Lima said that another relevant issue in the law is the prohibition of political propaganda of other countries, that is, propaganda messages may not be disseminated from governments or foreign entities.
From the PVEM, Waldo Fernández considered that the system will allow a more connected Mexico because it sets clear rules and addresses substantial items to regulate the use and use of the radio spectrum.
The Morenista Aníbal Ostoa Ortega said that with this law the “communicative sovereignty” of the State is recovered, and that it is not a measure of censorship, “but an act of dignity, sovereignty and self -determination.”
“The media must be at the service of the people and not of the powers, so we must defend the narrative of our screens and our decisions,” he said.
Do you like to inform yourself for Google News? Follow our showcase to have the best stories
