IFT, freedom of expression

The Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) faces a major challenge: preventing a fundamental human right from being violated; freedom of expression in the electronic media, specifically radio and television.

This is a challenge it will have to face at a time when it is registering a clear institutional weakness, as it only employs 5 of the 7 commissioners it has to work with.

And at a time when the President-Commissioner, Adolfo Cuevas, will leave office on 28 February this year 2022.

From that date, there would be only four commissioners left – if the corresponding appointments are not made -: Javier Juárez Mojica, Ramiro Camacho Castillo, Sóstenes Díaz González and Arturo Robles Rovalo.

Confronted with the revived “Gag Law” with the resolution of the Supreme Court of the Nation obliging radio and television news programs to distinguish between what is information and what is opinion, the IFT will have to be applied to find the right balance between hearing rights and human rights.

The first chamber of the Court ruled that in order to guarantee the rights of the audience, radio and television news programs must clearly distinguish between information and opinion. The Chamber of Radio and Television (CIRT) responded immediately.

He said that the Court had committed “a direct and unusual attack” on freedom of expression and that the sentence was in fact impossible to comply with and was contrary to the “most elementary” common sense.

The president of the IFT, in turn, assures that he will prevent freedom of expression from being violated, without detracting from the fact that he will also seek to address concerns about the right to a trial.

Without fanfare, Cuevas recalls that several things still need to happen. In the first place, the Congress of the Union will have to abide by the Court’s ruling and issue a legislative project.

In this process, the official says, the IFT will be very proactive, with full respect for Congress itself, but firm and firm, to ensure that the legislative process is in line with the mandates of freedom of expression.

After the legislative process, the IFT will have to issue new guidelines. The IFT – Cuevas warned – is not going to establish a rule that presupposes an obstacle to free expression or a tortuous, ineffective mechanism, impossible to comply with, which only gives rise to gives to anxiety and sanction risk.

The IFT is a guarantee – he assured – that freedom of expression triumphs and above any other consideration triumphs.

We can not have media or communicators who feel threatened, restricted, incompetent, prevented from carrying out their communication work, he argues.

For the President of the IFT, dialogue with all parties, including the radio and television industry, will be essential.

The Presidential Commissioner, whose administration is on the verge of ending, trusts that the President of the Republic will keep his word and appoint the missing commissioners.

He said the IFT commissioners had a meeting with the CEO last December, assuring them that he would send the appointments.

They explained to him that after the departure of Adolfo Cuevas, a number of at least five commissioners would be required for the IFT to make decisions which by law must be voted on with that number of votes.

And they also warned him that if the IFT did not have the necessary commissioners, it would not be able to act and it is a risk because it violates the autonomous nature of the institution, which at the same time a commitment of the T-MEC is. .

Hopefully, as the president of the IFT trusts trusts, this autonomous body will soon receive the appointments of the commissioners so that it is effectively viable and can fulfill all its powers, starting with those of monitoring and protecting freedom of expression.

But until you see, do not believe. At that point

[email protected]