Upholding Audience Rights While Strictly Respecting Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Expression
Share your love
By: Teodoro Rentería Arróyave, Journalist and Writer.
In response to the Presidency of the Republic’s call for a public consultation on regulations governing audience rights, we fully support compliance with these rights, provided they are framed within an unwavering respect for freedom of the press and freedom of expression. President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has stated that there will never be any intention to censor anyone and has guaranteed as much. Indeed, in Mexico, neither the media nor the journalism community would tolerate censorship.
As lifelong broadcasters, we join the position expressed by our National Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry (CIRT), which we reproduce in full below:
The CIRT is analyzing the General Guidelines for the Protection of Audience Rights, currently under public consultation by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT). We have also reviewed and are analyzing the presentation made by the Federal Executive Branch’s Legal Counsel on July 28, 2026, regarding these guidelines.
We wish to state the following:
1. We understand and support the regulatory mandate to advance the protection of audience rights. In that spirit, we have submitted constructive recommendations to the CRT.
2. The CIRT will conduct a consensus-building process with its more than 1,200 affiliated broadcast stations to establish a unified position, which will be presented during the ongoing public consultation.
3. We understand that the CRT’s intention is not to impose censorship. However, several issues remain concerning and should be corrected or clearly defined to prevent any risk of democratic backsliding or infringement on freedom of expression. These concerns include:
I. The proposed guidelines remain ambiguous and could allow for excessive government discretion. The proposal would permit the government to determine what constitutes false or misleading information, undermining existing self-regulatory mechanisms and reducing the audience ombudsman to a subordinate role under government authority.
II. The penalties for each alleged informational violation are excessively high—up to 1 percent of a broadcaster’s and/or programmer’s total annual revenue. Current law only authorizes fines in two specific cases: failing to appoint an audience ombudsman and failing to adopt a code of ethics. These proposed sanctions would therefore exceed what is authorized by law.
III. The proposal would establish an “appeal process” through which the government could review all decisions made by audience ombudsmen. This would effectively allow the government to decide which content—including news programming—may or may not be broadcast.
IV. Finally, the guidelines should explicitly prohibit anonymous complaints. Otherwise, they could be used as a mechanism to pressure journalists and media organizations through false or artificially generated complaints.
V. Pending a more detailed analysis and international comparisons, we believe it was appropriate for the CRT to open a public consultation process to correct errors and excesses that could jeopardize the freedom of expression we all value, as well as the public’s right to watch and listen to the programming from Mexico and around the world of their choosing.
Sincerely,
National Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry in Mexico (CIRT).
AS STATED: UPHOLD THE RIGHTS OF AUDIENCES WHILE MAINTAINING STRICT RESPECT FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.
Journalist and author; President of the National College of Journalism Graduates (CONALIPE); Honorary President of the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP); Founding President and Honorary Lifetime President of the Federation of Mexican Journalists Associations (FAPERMEX); recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the International University; Full Member and Director of Communications of the National Academy of History and Geography (ANHG). I welcome your comments and feedback at teodororenteriaa@gmail.com. You can listen to us on Libertas Radio stations throughout Mexico. We invite you to visit: www.felap.info, www.ciap-felap.org, www.fapermex.org, and our news portal: www.irradianoticias.com.
