Mexico's Radio and TV Chamber calls government audience guidelines 'ambiguous,' warns of discretion

Mexico's National Chamber of Industry of Radio and Television (CIRT) has expressed strong reservations about the government's newly proposed General Guidelines for the Protection of Audience Rights. The industry group described the guidelines, presented by Federal Executive's Legal Counselor Luisa María Alcalde, as "ambiguous and giving rise to discretion."

While CIRT supports the regulatory mandate to protect audiences, its analysis of the public consultation draft revealed several points needing correction to prevent what it calls a "democratic regression." The chamber is concerned that the guidelines could allow the government to arbitrarily define "false or decontextualized information," undermining self-regulation mechanisms and subordinating audience ombudsmen to government authority.

“

These guidelines are still ambiguous and give rise to discretion by the government. The Project allows the Government to define what is false or decontextualized information. Distorting self-regulation mechanisms and annulling the audience defender who becomes subordinate to the authority.

Furthermore, CIRT argues that the proposed sanctions for alleged "informational lapses" are excessively high. These sanctions could amount to 1% of a concessionaire's annual income, a penalty the chamber contends is outside the scope of existing law, which typically limits fines to cases of failing to appoint an audience defender or not issuing ethical codes.

“

This, when the law on the matter only imposes fines in two cases: not appointing an audience defender; and, not issuing codes of ethics. With this, they intend to impose sanctions outside the law.

The chamber also raised concerns about the "appeal for disagreement" process, which could allow for review of audience defenders' decisions. CIRT fears this could ultimately give the government the power to decide which content can be broadcast. They also stressed the importance of ensuring that complaints are not anonymous to prevent potential coercion against communicators and journalists through false or artificial claims.

CIRT views the public consultation as a critical opportunity to "correct errors and excesses that could jeopardize freedom of expression and the decision of audiences to watch and listen to programming from Mexico and the world that they desire."

“

CIRT considers that the consultation opened by the CRT is very important to 'correct errors and excesses that could put freedom of expression at risk that we all value and the decision of audiences to see and hear the programming of Mexico and the World that they wish'.