Articulo_8_EN_Doxa_31_The_Social_Communication_legislation

According to Santander (2014), the creation of communication laws in Latin America is a land where the State, the organised civil society, and the media entrepreneurs fight for having the hegemony. For Santander, the main struggle is related to the capitalist forms of media organization against critical views from the Latin-American left.

Several transformations have launched an interest in communication regulation in Latin America in recent times. Some examples of these are the reconfiguration of the media field, technological innovations, the new logics of broadcasting, modification of the business model, loss of centrality of some public actors, for referring some. The result is the legislation of new laws, “which ‘other fields’ of communication recognise; and undertake the ‘relocation’ of the communicative space” (A. M. Gómez & Ramos-Martín, 2014: 487).

The article follows this structure. The first section presents a synthesis of the context and the theoretical approaches on which this research is ground; the second section, the methodological aspects. The third section presents the results and interpretation. The final section presents the discussion and conclusion that associate data with the analytical axis.

2. Context and approaches to study the Regional Legislation on Social Communication in Mexico

In 2013, a Constitutional Reform was approved in Mexico, which had relevant modifications to articles 6th and 7th. These articles guarantee rights and freedoms of expression and information for all citizens. Results of these were: the ratification of the freedom of expression, the modification of scheme of licenses for the radio, television, and telecommunications, the strengthened of the right of access to public governmental information, the protection of personal data of telecommunications users, the recognition of broadcasting as a general object of interest, and the granting of the Constitutional right of access to the Internet.

Previously, the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures, in Title Third from Book Two was enacted, in 2018. It is composed of 27 articles to regulate the access of political parties to the radio and television. Some years later, in 2012, groups of journalists and activists exerted pressure on the federal government to enact the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. The generation of regulatory laws related to the reform of 2013: Federal Telecommunication and Broadcasting Law, Federal Law of Transparency and Access to Public Government Information, Federal Law for the Protection of Personal Information in Possession of Private Entities joined these legislations, and by order of the Supreme Court, the General Law of Social Communication was created and enacted in 2018. This law regulates the government propaganda and advertising spending.

In this way, with critics, the journey to regulate the issues of information, communication, media, and their relations with political power was moving forward. During the second half of the XX century, there was pressure from citizen groups to properly legislate these topics (Gutiérrez, 2005; Ramírez, 2008; Torres, 2011). For Gutiérrez (2005), the principal debate at that moment was on having clear legislation that guaranteed the right of access to information at the same time to provide certainty on the responsible exercise of the freedom of expression. The reform of 2013