Political Advocacy

This area works on the creation of national and international regulatory and public policy frameworks that enable the development of indigenous communication.

We start from the needs and aspirations of the communities, media and organizations, who identify the ideal scenario to which they aspire and the way to achieve it with or without the State, which has allowed us to generate an adequate regulatory framework in Mexico for both indigenous radio stations and community telecommunications networks.

The communities we accompany face various challenges such as exclusion, discrimination or extractivism when developing a communication project. We rely on the elements of a cycle of construction of legal alternatives to strengthen their efforts.

Axes of Work

We address two fundamental communication rights of indigenous peoples: 1) to generate conditions for them to acquire, manage and operate communication media and 2) to access non-indigenous media without discrimination.

We seek to eliminate barriers and create a favorable environment for the fulfillment of these rights. To this end, we focus on ensuring a regulatory and public policy framework favorable to the development of indigenous communication. With the birth of digital rights, we insert our long history of work in the field of communication rights into the transformation of the digital environment.

These transformation projects are the concrete manifestation of the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination and of individuals to the free development of their personalities. In their implementation, they face multiple normative barriers that limit their realization and impede their recognition.

Therefore, we accompany communities in the creation of their communication projects, as a practical exercise of their rights to autonomy and self-determination. We identify barriers and transform them through advocacy on regulatory trends, negotiation with governments and international organizations, and strategic litigation.

Connectivity

It addresses a basic right to participate in the digital environment: access to the Internet.

Prevention

Prepares people to use the Internet safely and responsibly.

Defense

It protects individuals from attempts at control or abuse by various actors seeking to limit freedoms on the Internet.

Transformation

It transforms the digital environment through means, tools and systems that incorporate values other than individualism and are committed to collaboration and mutual benefit.

Timeline

  • With ITU: Best practices ICT development in indigenous communities.
  • First cellular telephone network.
  • Constitutional reform in telecommunications.
  • Modification to WTDC Recommendation 19 for the recognition of community networks.
  • Experimental concession for indigenous cellular telephony.
  • Bases for the regulatory development of indigenous communication in Mexico.
  • The guidelines in which we participate for the granting of concessions are issued.
  • General guidelines for the granting of concessions for indigenous social use.
  • Indigenous social concession guidelines.
  • First concession of indigenous social use of telecommunications for community cellular telephony.
  • #CommunicateIs campaign.
  • Access to the Mexican State's satellite reserve for indigenous telecommunications networks.
  • Reform to the Federal Law of Rights that eliminates the payment of radioelectric spectrum rights to indigenous telecommunications concessionaires. 
  • Spectrum concession for point-to-point links.
  • Ruling eliminating the tax credits for the payment of spectrum rights to Telecomunicaciones Indígenas Comunitarias AC.
  • Confirmation of Criteria before the National Electoral Institute.
  • Appeals filed by Radio Tosepan and Radio Cholollan Zacatepec against the amendments to the Electoral Radio and Television regulations without prior consultation.
  • #OurRadiosOurStandards campaign.

Projects

Legal framework for community networks

Indigenous broadcasting

Digital platforms and common models

Protection of the knowledge and creations of indigenous peoples

Restorative justice and gender studies
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Legal Framework for Community Networks

This project consists of promoting regulations and public policies that facilitate the development of community telecommunications networks in Latin America. We have also carried out strategic litigation actions that contribute to this end, such as the elimination of radio spectrum fees for indigenous social licensees in Mexico between 2019 and 2021.

Indigenous Broadcasting

Since 2008 we have accompanied the indigenous radio movement in its struggle for recognition and the creation of favorable legislation and policies in Mexico. Through this project, we ensure information and advice to indigenous radio stations that want to obtain their concession. We also monitor the regulator and related institutions to ensure that they respect the autonomy of indigenous media, maintain commitments and avoid over-regulating these media.

As a strategic action, we accompanied the radio stations Radio Tosepan Limakxtum and Radio Cholollan Zacatepec on a litigation against the imposition of electoral propaganda by the National Electoral Institute (Instituto Nacional Electoral)..

Digital platforms and common models

This project focuses on the development of internal regulations for platforms under the commons system. In the Colmena project, we have applied the principles under which commons systems are regulated in exchange and content creation platforms. In the design of the value proposition of indigenous virtual mobile operators, we will work on the regulation of platforms for the exchange of products and content under the system of commons.

Protection of the knowledge and creations of indigenous peoples

At the request of indigenous filmmakers, communities and organizations that train indigenous filmmakers, we collaborated in the development of a protocol for film production in indigenous communities that respects their knowledge and cultural and artistic heritage, and provides a regulatory framework based on the Manual of Good Practices for Community Filmmaking issued by these organizations. In this project we also attend to specific requests for the protection of the creations of the communities and organizations with which we collaborate.

Restorative justice and gender studies

Based on a felt need, both within the organization and the communities, this project aims to investigate and create tools for conflict resolution from a different perspective than the punitive one. We start from a gender perspective, recognizing the historical inequality that women and dissidents have faced.

Archive and community memory

Training activities and exchange of archiving and memory experiences for the preservation of community media content. Virtual and face-to-face meetings have been held, called archival tequios, to strengthen each archiving project, learn and exchange tools, techniques, methodologies and systematize the process for evaluation and reflection.