We lost public media

The federal public media and that of Mexico City voluntarily decided to cross the Rubicon, the fine line that separates between preserving their social function and editorial independence despite being official media and “belonging” to a government, to become openly propagandist spaces of the Fourth Transformation.

On Sunday, November 27, the public media Canal Once, Canal 22 (whose informative spaces do not usually address political aspects but cultural ones), Canal 14 and the radio station Altavoz (both of the Public Broadcasting System of the Mexican State), the Mexican Institute de la Radio (Imer, a decentralized body of the non-sectorized Federal Public Administration), Radio Educación and Capital 21 (Public Media Service of Mexico City, whose creation decree violates the CDMX Constitution) coordinated to carry out a “ special news coverage” of the “March for Transformation”.

The march was called by the federal government and constitutes a political act directly organized, promoted and sponsored by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his followers. It is known that the official slogan has to do with the word “transformation”.

Since Friday, November 25, a video produced and broadcast by the Public Broadcasting System of the Mexican State (SPREM) circulated on social networks with scenes of protesters, banners and images exclusively favorable to the Federal Executive, inappropriate for a public medium bound by law. from creation to being a space for the various political and ideological currents.

Why were the public media coordinated? It is not the first time that it has happened and it is a collaboration mechanism for multiple purposes. The law creating the SPREM (chaired by Jenaro Villamil) grants it the power to “coordinate with public broadcasting media of a federal nature” (it does not mention state public media such as Capital 21 of CDMX), but “in order to guarantee the fulfillment of its purposes”.

What are the purposes of SPREM? Among others, disseminate impartial and objective information, have editorial independence and give space to the expression of the diversity and plurality of ideas and opinions that strengthen the democratic life of society. Guarantee the right to information and be a platform for freedom of expression. SPREM is also committed to ensuring that the information is adjusted to political pluralism and to facilitate the debate of the various ideological, political and cultural currents.

The coordinated coverage was illegal because it violated the tenth transitory article of the 2013 constitutional reform on telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as article 86 of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law of 2014, which state that “public media that provide broadcasting service must have editorial independence”.

The directors of the seven mentioned public media coordinated and carried out the “special information coverage” of the “March for Transformation” for political reasons, because to a greater or lesser extent they share the vision and ideals of President López Obrador and his government, but it was also a trap that Jenaro Villamil set for them.

All the media knew that coordinating under the tutelage of SPREM to broadcast the “March for Transformation” meant speaking well of the government, its policies and celebrating the fourth year of President AMLO’s administration… and losing editorial independence.

Not coordinating and carrying out separate and truly independent coverage meant taking editorial distance in favor of their audiences, not appearing in the collective photo of the official public media, risking angering Villamil himself, Jesús Ramírez (General Coordinator of Social Communication and Spokesperson for the Government of the Republic), to the government, to the 4T, to Morena and to compromise their present and political future.

It is because of personal political interests of the heads of the public media that they crossed the line; in return they squandered years of work, even decades of trajectory in favor of a truly public electronic media system, sacrificing one of the most important principles of public media: editorial independence.

It is very easy to measure what happened during the coordinated coverage of the public media. If the convener of the march had not been the current Federal Executive, but former presidents Enrique Peña Nieto, Felipe Calderón or any other, would today’s official supporters have liked it, would it have seemed correct that the public media of then coordinated to make such biased, partial coverage and so in favor of the policies and messages of the government in turn?

What the public media coordinated by SPREM did was an act of propaganda and uncritical dissemination of an event called, organized and sponsored by the federal government and its followers, without editorial independence from the guideline, without informative balance, totally partial, without plurality of voices or diversity of opinions (understood as those different from that of the official discourse that was heard throughout the coverage and the march).

It cannot be argued that the “special information coverage” of the public media on Sunday the 27th was of public interest or to inform the audience, because the media spend all their time reporting on this and other events.

Precisely because we would not accept favorable coverage for leaders of the past, we must continue to defend that the public media have an editorial position that is independent and timeless from the government in power; promote informational, political, social and cultural pluralism; guarantee the right to information and be a platform for freedom of expression.

The battle does not end for the public media to be truly guarantors of the expression of diversity and the plurality of ideas and opinions, of political debate and not only those representative of the government, as is currently the case to a greater or lesser extent in the seven media that they coordinated and lost editorial independence on Sunday the 27th. It was the march of the transformation of public media to propagandist media.

Twitter: @beltmondi