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< | Who Will Control the Mexican Media Now? | >
> | Who Will Control the Mexican Media? | | | -- By LiliAbascal - 17 Nov 2012 | | | Monopolies dominate the Mexican economy, and the telecommunication sector is no exception of this problem. The telephony and internet access markets are dominated by two companies owned by Mr. Carlos Slim: Telmex and Telcel. Mr. Slim’s companies have market shares of 80%, 70% and 74% of the fixed line, mobile and internet access markets respectively. | |
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Why make footnotes when you can make links? You're writing for the Web, and you should learn to make it easy for your readers. I fixed this one for you. You should fix the rest.
| | | Besides that, Mr. Slim has constantly expressed his desire to own a TV channel; however, his companies are expressly forbidden to do so in Mexico. Despite not being authorized to provide TV services, Mr. Slim owns an online “TV Channel” called “Uno TV”. “Uno TV” has its own news program and provides free of charge daily news (via a SMS) to all of Telcel’s subscribers. Telmex also entered into an alliance with MVS Multivisión (a cable, radio and internet provider) to distribute satellite TV. | |
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< | On the other hand, there are two dominant mass media conglomerates: Televisa and TV Azteca. Televisa is the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish speaking world(2). By the end of 2010 it had 70.5% of the average number of TV spectators in Mexico during prime time (3), and it had direct participation in cable and satellite TV, radio, magazines, telecommunication networks and internet, among others. The other company, and Televisa’s former rival, TV Azteca, by the end of 2010 absorbed 24.9% of the prime time audience (4) and belonged to the same corporate group as Iusacell, the third mobile provider in Mexico. TV Azteca’s group also participates in the musical industry, and is a provider of cable TV, telephony and broadband internet. Those numbers acquire more relevance if one considers that according to a national survey, 95.5% of the Mexicans are informed of what happens through television (5). | >
> | On the other hand, there are two dominant mass media conglomerates: Televisa and TV Azteca. Televisa is the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish speaking world. By the end of 2010 it had 70.5% of the average number of TV spectators in Mexico during prime time, and it had direct participation in cable and satellite TV, radio, magazines, telecommunication networks and internet, among others. The other company, and Televisa’s former rival, TV Azteca, by the end of 2010 absorbed 24.9% of the prime time audience and belonged to the same corporate group as Iusacell, the third mobile provider in Mexico. TV Azteca’s group also participates in the musical industry, and is a provider of cable TV, telephony and broadband internet. Those numbers acquire more relevance if one considers that according to a national survey, 95.5% of the Mexicans are informed of what happens through television. | | | Notwithstanding the severe market concentration, on June, 2012 the Mexican competition authority approved an alliance by which Televisa would become the owner of 50% of Iusacell, remaining the other 50% in the hands of TV Azteca. | | | It is clear that the balance is moving away from neutrality in favor of big corporations highly interconnected with the government, and surprisingly, not so many people are informed about it or more worrying, seem to care about it. The little debate that has arisen has been focused in economic power rather than in freedom of expression, citizens’ rights or net neutrality. The lack of serious debate can be exemplified with the acquisition by Televisa of the 50% of Iusacell. In that acquisition the discussion was centered mainly in the concentration of advertising media rather than in freedom of expression issues, or the power that Televisa and TV Azteca will achieve controlling a telecommunications network like the Iusacell one. Moreover, some of the members of “#YoSoy132” were identified and harassed by Peña Nieto’s team, there have been several law proposals to control the internet and give the government explicit powers to control it. Yet, no one is asking questions. | |
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< | What options will we have if the new communication channels become censored? What will happen now that Mr. Peña Nieto has been elected as the President of Mexico and he is aware of the “menace” that interconnected and better informed citizens pose to his government? How will he pay the political favors to the telecommunication companies (specially Televisa, who has been accused of helping Peña Nieto win the election)? Will the net become increasingly monitored or censored?
It is time for the Mexican society to start asking those questions and to react if they do not like the conclusions they reach.
(1)OECD (2012), “OECD Review of Telecommunication Policy and Regulation in Mexico”, OECD Publishing.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264060111-enP.26
(2)Wikipedia contributors, “Televisa”, Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisa (accessed November 2, 2012)
(3)Asociación Mexicana de Derecho a la Información, “Concentración de Iusacell y Televisa: un peligro para la competencia, la libertad de expresión y pluralidad de voces en las telecomunicaciones y los medios de comunicación en México”, P. 20, available at http://www.mediatelecom.com.mx/doc_pdf/concentracion%20televisa%20iusacell.pdf
(4)Idem.
(5)Idem. P. 18 | >
> | We, as society, need to get organized and raise our voice against actions that harm our freedom in either the internet or out of it. We have to protect the new communication channels and be attentive for them to not be censored. We have to create and maintain debate regarding the perils that freedom of expression and privacy are facing, as well as about the factual power that media and telecommunications companies hold. Keep raising our voice and taking advantage of the multiple outlets that the internet has allowed to exist, but while we do it, we should be careful to not simply be enabling the shift of power from one corporation or the government to another corporation. Power to communicate and express should remain in the society. "Yo soy 132" has taught us that the society still has that power, but we need to exercise it and fight for it. | | |
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