The plenary session of the Senate approved in general and in particular the opinion on the decree that interprets the scope of the concept of government propaganda in the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures and in the Federal Law of Revocation of Mandate, with the purpose of allowing public officials to promote the process of revocation of mandate.
After difficulties in having the necessary quorum to hold the session this Thursday, with 67 votes in favor and 37 against, the senators endorsed in particular and the reserved articles in the terms of the opinion with which they seek to “precise the scope and guarantee the correct application” of the concept of government propaganda.
According to the endorsed document, “the interpretation of the scope of the concept of government propaganda also aims to avoid contradictions, as well as the violation of the rights of freedom of expression and free access to public information (…) due to the diversity contradictory judicial criteria that have been issued by the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation in this matter,” the Senate detailed in a statement.
It should be remembered that last Sunday, the president counselor of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, highlighted that the Complaints and Complaints Commission of this institution has received more than 80 complaints from parties denouncing the improper promotion of the consultation revocation of mandate by high-level officials, despite the fact that they were prevented from that activity, since only the INE was empowered to carry out the promotion and invitation to participate in the consultation to be held on April 10.
With this decree it is determined that “the expressions of public servants or the information of public interest that they disseminate in any format do not constitute government propaganda.”
It details that this concept “must be understood as the set of writings, publications, images, recordings and projections disseminated, under any form of social communication, charged to the public budget, specifically labeled for that purpose by a public entity” with the aim to disseminate the work, actions or achievements related to its purposes or information of public interest regarding the well-being of the population, whose characteristics must be adjusted to article 134, eighth paragraph, of the Political Constitution.
On Wednesday, March 16, the Superior Chamber of the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation ratified the order directed by INE to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to refrain from making comments on the mandate revocation process and ordered the partial withdrawal of the morning conference on February 28.
Unanimously by the magistrates present, and without discussion, the plenary session of the Court modified the agreement issued by the Technical Unit for Electoral Contentious Matters of the National Electoral Institute (UTCE), so that the General Coordination of Social Communication and Spokesperson of the Government of the Republic will exclusively eliminate the content of the publications that contain expressions related to the process of revocation of mandateregarding the conference on that date.
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