Mexican Law Would Liberalize Telecoms, But Critics Spy Censorship Maya Kroth - The Christian Science Monitor
go to original April 25, 2014

Over a thousand people, many of them students, gathered on the steps of Mexico City’s Angel of Independence monument this week to protest a telecommunications bill they say amounts to government censorship.

“They’re trying to silence our voices and our freedom of expression on the Internet,” says Natalie Ollivier, who had an X drawn over her mouth in ink, while the crowd behind her Tuesday night chanted, “No a la censura,” or “no to censorship.”

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed sweeping constitutional reforms last year, tackling topics from ending the state oil monopoly to increasing competition in the telecommunications sector. The initial telecom proposal was lauded for its aim to open the market to greater foreign investment, create new all-access TV stations, and implement stricter competition rules in order to offer consumers better prices and access to phone, Internet, and TV services.

President Peña Nieto last month sent a 500-page telecom bill to the Senate that fleshed out the so-called secondary legislation that determines how the reforms will actually play out, but some of the bill’s provisions are sparking concerns. Opponents say the proposed law would allow the government to block cell phone signals during protests, censor websites, and track cell phone communications in the interest of national security. It’s a sensitive topic, as Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) controlled Mexico for 71 straight years until 2000, and some fear these provisions could signal a step back toward a more authoritarian style of government.

“The Mexican government is spending a lot of effort and money to build an international image as a reformer, democratic government [but] that’s totally at odds with what we are living in Mexico,” says Luis F. Garcia, a lawyer with the Digital Rights Defense Network. “What we are seeing is a return of the old PRI.”

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