Photo by Observacom, used with permission.

This article was originally published on Observacom and it is republished on Global Voices under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

In order to have their demands included in Mexico's National Development Plan 2025-2030 — a document that defines the objectives, strategies and priorities for the current government period — representatives of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican media presented a proposal with several measures “that guarantee the sustainability and autonomy of their media.”

The initiative proposes a series of actions to improve legal, financial, institutional and technological frameworks. It was promoted in conjunction with the Networks for Diversity, Equity and Sustainability A.C. collective, member of the Association for the Progress of Communications (APC).

One of the legal points calls for the simplification of the procedures to obtain radio and telecommunications concessions, arguing that they are currently “cumbersome, long and complex.” They also request that “provisional operation be allowed while the definitive concessions are being processed, in addition to guaranteeing the active participation of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican representatives in the regulatory bodies.”

In reference to measures to ensure economic sustainability, they suggest the creation of a national fund focused on training, infrastructure and production of content for the sector, tax incentives for the acquisition of equipment and a centralized entity for the better distribution of the one percent of the official advertising budget that legally corresponds to them.

Another measure that they consider key in this regard is the expansion of the radio spectrum reserve, so that “it is not 10 percent, but 30 percent” and with a percentage reserved specifically for “Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communication.” In addition, they propose the establishment of spaces in public media for the dissemination of Indigenous content, “with guaranteed resources for the acquisition of own productions.”

At the institutional level, the proposal highlights the need for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican media to operate under principles of self-management and respect for their regulatory systems. In this sense, they demand guarantees to manage their content autonomously, without “the imposition of advertising or propaganda that contradicts their cultural values.”

The last demands refer to facilitating access to infrastructure so that communities can operate telecommunications networks independently in order to provide connectivity services to their communities. In this regard, they are asking to be allowed to use the backbone network — the main telecommunications infrastructure — to connect their communities. They also “suggest that fiber optic ducts be incorporated in the construction of rural roads,” which would speed up the expansion of the Internet in rural areas.