MEDIA-MEXICO: Broadcasting Law to Face Supreme Court Challenge

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, May 4 2007 (IPS) - A year ago, the Mexican government and political parties caved in to pressure from powerful media consortia Televisa and TV Azteca, and passed a law that favoured the two broadcasting giants, to the detriment of aims to democratise the media.

Now, however, it appears that the law may be on its way to being revoked.

On Thursday night, a Mexican Supreme Court justice circulated a draft decision, as a working document, to his colleagues, the government and legislators.

The document says that several articles of the Federal Law on Radio and Television violate the constitution and principles of equity, competition, and democratisation of the broadcasting spectrum.

“What the Court is saying is beyond our expectations, because many of us thought that it wouldn’t dare go so far against the powers that be,” the non-governmental World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)’s representative in Mexico, Aleida Calleja, told IPS.

The law was passed in March 2006, in the heat of political campaigns leading up to the presidential elections in July, and under open pressure from the country’s two big broadcasting networks.

“What the Court decides will determine whether power in Mexico is in the hands of the state’s institutions or in those of the powers that be, so I foresee that the television networks and certain radio broadcasting companies will bring a great deal of pressure to bear on the Supreme Court,” Calleja said.

In Mexico, seven out of 10 viewers watch Televisa channels, while two out of 10 watch TV Azteca programmes. Thirteen commercial groups own virtually all the radio stations.

The 11 Supreme Court justices will deliberate until May 24 on the complaint brought a year ago by a group of lawmakers alleging that the broadcasting law is unconstitutional, before handing down their verdict. The deliberations will be televised on a public channel.

The draft decision that was circulated was prepared by Justice Sergio Aguirre, one of the most conservative Supreme Court magistrates. It advocates annulling the privileges the law grants to the handful of companies that control radio and television in Mexico.

Legislators admit that part of the current law was written by the broadcasting giants themselves. It allows companies that already own radio and television stations to offer additional digital channels and operate telecommunications services without having to bid for concessions and without paying the state an extra cent.

It also leaves it to the discretion of government authorities to grant or withhold new concessions for using the radio frequency spectrum, and stipulates regulations that ensure that when concessions are put out to tender, whoever makes the highest bid must win.

Senator Santiago Creel of the governing National Action Party (PAN), who was interior minister in the administration of former President Vicente Fox (2000-2006), admitted that the broadcasting law was approved under pressure from Televisa and TV Azteca, who took advantage, he said, of their position as platforms for disseminating campaign ads.

Several legislators belonging to the conservative PAN, the leftwing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) said they were pleased with the draft decision document and agreed that the broadcasting law should be amended.

“I am cautiously optimistic that the ‘Televisiva law’ (as it is referred to by its opponents) will be repealed, but we must wait and see,” said PRD congressman Carlos Navarrete.

“The Supreme Court is standing up to some powerful entrenched interests in this case,” he said.

The controversial law was approved without opposition by the chamber of deputies in December 2005. All the parties, including the PRD, passed it on the nod in a session that lasted less than seven minutes.

Later it also made it through the senate, although some dissenting voices were raised and divisions arose between party benches.

Observers, spokespersons for cultural and community radio and television stations, some civil servants and even the United Nations have all called on Congress to repeal or modify the law, but to no avail.

Fox cultivated close ties with Televisa and TV Azteca and was seldom criticised by the two networks when in office. He had the opportunity to veto the law, but did not do so.

The Mexico Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights asked lawmakers at one point not to approve the law, and to remember that Mexico has signed several international agreements that promote “democratic” access to the radio frequency spectrum by all social sectors.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also spoke out, saying that the law limits freedom of expression in Mexico.

Adding to the criticism, Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission (CFC) said that the law does not ensure effective service provision, nor does it avoid, in assigning the radio frequency spectrum, the issue of control of the bandwidth being concentrated in a few hands.

The independent Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) also rejected the law, because it awards politicians complete discretion to buy advertising space in the media, paid for by taxpayers’ money.

But the opposition was futile. The day before the law was passed, Televisiva and TV Azteca broadcast editorial programmes during their nightly newscasts, defending the law and complaining they had been criticised maliciously by forces representing murky interests.

While the draft law was being debated in Congress, the two big networks provided no coverage of any arguments against the law.

In contrast, many radio stations opened up the debate in this country of over 104 million people, and the state-funded cultural television channels and radio stations broadcast harsh criticism of the “Televisa law”.

But it is the two main networks that have a virtual monopoly on the Mexican television audience, and therefore the money from commercial sponsorship.

According to several studies, Televisa receives 60 percent of the total advertising budget in Mexico, operates 225 television channels, and is managed by the Azcárraga family. TV Azteca, meanwhile, has 42 channels and is run by the Salinas family.

Televisa sells its programmes and has partners and trades its stock all over Latin America and the United States. It is the largest television consortium in the Spanish-speaking world.

“We will accept the word of those legislators who are arguing against the law, and the judges who plan to repeal it. We’ll see how far they get against the powers that be,” said AMARC’s Calleja.