Project
Strengthening Indigenous and Community Media
Since 2020, UNESCO in Mexico has been working on projects and initiatives based on research, analysis and collaboration to define public policy recommendations, implement affirmative and collective actions, as well as to generate synergies between key actors to strengthen Indigenous and Community Media, and enrich the plurality and diversity of the Mexican media ecosystem.
The efforts began thanks to the and the in December 2018 to support 12 countries in their endeavours to create new regulatory frameworks to strengthen cultural and creative industries, as well as to promote South-South cooperation. This call also aimed to assist developing countries that have ratified the . The EU/UNESCO Steering Committee approved a project submitted by the Government of Mexico: "Design of public policies to support Indigenous and Community Media in Mexico and incorporate indigenous content in public and commercial media".
This project had two objectives:
1. Strengthening the Indigenous and Community Media sector with actions that contributed to the following:
a. Improving the conditions for its legal existence
b. Generating mechanisms that helped make it more sustainable
c. Impelling actions to promote the production of content in indigenous languages.
2. Generating a regulatory framework and an enabling environment for the inclusion of content in commercial and public media that reflects the country's cultural and linguistic diversity.
Mexico is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse countries in the world. Despite the immense cultural richness that this represents, many of Mexico’s indigenous languages are under threat and at risk of dying out. Indigenous media have the ability to promote indigenous languages, identities, ways of thinking and cultures, thereby, this media have naturally become a platform for bringing indigenous peoples together and celebrating their cultural expressions.
The 2013 telecommunications and broadcasting reform has facilitated the incorporation of new players and new voices into the Mexican broadcasting landscape. However, there are still significant barriers not only to access, but also to the survival, promotion and successful development of such media.
The existence and sustainability of these media is vital for indigenous peoples and communities to exercise the right to communicate, which, in turn, is considered an enabling factor to defend and promote other basic rights, such as education, health, and cultural rights. In terms of collective rights, these media exercise the right of self-determination and autonomy of indigenous peoples and communities and they become essential to demonstrate the linguistic plurality and cultural diversity of Mexico and the world.
Indigenous and Community Media…
ICM are cultural and creative industries because they are a central component of activity that promotes diverse content, enabling diversity and plurality, and reflect the life and culture of communities. They also enable the local economy where musicians, creators and communicators from all corners of Mexico create and promote plural and diverse content, which is part of their sustainable development model. ICM as cultural and creative industries enable rights, wages and security.
ICM are the ones who enable and demand access to public information and the right to freedom of expression of their communities and indigenous peoples. Its role in our society involves the creation of content that reflects the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country, the preservation of the heritage of communities and territories, and enables our right to access to plural information, which, without the MIC, we could hardly access.
ICM are the main transmitters of indigenous and community heritage, both linguistic and cultural, which includes ancestral knowledge, customs and traditions. They also are vehicles for the promotion and defense of their human rights, as well as their autonomy and self-determination to preserve their cultural, social and economic values that are often different from the norms that prevail in the societies in which they live.
Methodology of the project
In order to achieve the objectives of the project, which required a process of consultation and participation involving the key players, opening up spaces for dialogue, performing a diagnosis and analysis of specific needs, and establishing and coordinating collaborative networks for executing implementation activities, among other processes, it was agreed that Participatory Action Research (PAR) would be adopted as a central methodology, along with theoretical and conceptual frameworks that were in keeping with the ethical principles, context and objectives of the project.
The objectives and principles of the and other theoretical and methodological frameworks such as , , indigenous thinking and community logic were used as a basis. Previous participatory public policy-making and other experiences were also taken into account in terms of their analysis and design.
Phases
This phase fulfilled the objective of carrying out a participatory diagnosis with the National Team that would allow determining the current state of the situation of Indigenous and Community Media, as well as the priority needs to be addressed. This diagnosis allowed to outline seven thematic axes to be addressed in the next phase.
This phase focused on the deepening of the seven thematic axes, which resulted in seven working groups as spaces for dialogue and agreement to define proposals for affirmative and collaborative actions among the different entities that conformed the National Team. Among the affirmative actions carried out, the following stand out:
1) The creation of the , which has the aim of encouraging public, commercial, community and indigenous media to promote cultural and linguistic diversity in Mexico, in their content and their working teams. On March 26, 2021, the was formed to define the activities to promote the statutes of the Declaration and to grant a distinctive seal to the media adhered to this initiative that best align with the principles of the Declaration.
2) Collaboration between the Fonoteca Nacional (National Sound Archive) and Indigenous and Community Media for the exchanging of techniques and services for preserving and restoring their collections, thus improving their abilities to care for and protect their materials and contents in order to avoid serious damage or loss.
3) Collaboration agreement between Radio Educación, Red México (Network of Educational and Cultural Radio and Television Stations of Mexico) and Indigenous and Community Media to transmit the collaborative radio-magazine "Canto de Cenzontles", which is produced by civil society organizations and indigenous and Afro-descendant communicators.
In this phase, an event called "Latin American Exchange of Best Practices, Programs and Policies for the Strengthening of Indigenous and Community Media" was organized, which was held in the modalities of Regional Forum and Working Tables. This sought to be an exchange of good practices between peers and South-South cooperation with some selected experiences from Latin American countries and the United Kingdom that were relevant given the context of Mexico and from what was identified in the previous stages of the project.
During the event, the following aspects of the different countries were explored:
- How the sustainability of Indigenous and Community Media has been addressed in Colombia and Argentina and the processes that gave rise to public policies regarding such issues in both countries;
- Initiatives that have been developed in Argentina and Brazil to facilitate access to connectivity and infrastructure in poorer neighbourhoods and isolated areas;
- How the production of indigenous content and its presence in public media has been promoted in Colombia; and
- How the plurality of media content is measured and regulated in the UK.
This last phase focused on analyzing the clarifications of the previous phases and the foreign experiences that could be replicated in the Mexican context, in order to systematize the key concepts to design a document of public policy recommendations, which was fed back by the National Team.
Documents (Spanish only)
To learn more about the discussion tables during the four phases of the project, check out our video playlist, .
The National Team
To specify the objectives and phases of the project a National Team was formed in which more than 70 representatives of Indigenous and Community Media concessionaires, public media, civil society organizations, academics and experts, as well as government institutions participated. The work of the National Team’s members consisted on providing feedback and enriching the initial approach of the project based on their experience and knowledge of the communication ecosystem in Mexico, particularly about Indigenous and Community Media. Furthermore, the initiatives that emerged from the collaborations between its members were key to trigger pilot implementation actions and for the participatory design of public policy.
- Oficina de la Presidencia de la República
- Secretaría de Gobernación
- Secretaría de Cultura
- Cámara de Diputados
- Cámara de Senadores
- Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas (INPI)
- Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI)
- Dirección General de Culturas Populares Indígenas y Urbanas (DGCPIU)
- Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)
- Fonoteca Nacional
- Fonoteca INAH
- Fonoteca Zacatecas
- Cineteca Nacional
- Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT)
- Secretaría de Infraestructura, Comunicaciones y Transportes (SICT)
- Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE)
- Organismo Promotor de Inversiones en Telecomunicaciones (PROMTEL)
- Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT)
- Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP)
- Secretaría de las Mujeres de Oaxaca
- Radio Educación
- Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER)
- Canal 22
- Sistema Zacatecano de Radio y Televisión (SIZART)
- Sistema Público de Radiodifusión del Estado Mexicano (SPR)
- Radio Teocelo
- Radio Huayacocotla
- Radio Violeta
- Radio Comunitaria Joco
- Radio Nanhdiá
- Radio Jënpoj
- Radio Ocumicho
- Radio Tosepan Limakxtum
- Radio Cholollan
- Radio Estéreo Lluvia
- Campo Ciudad Radio
- Agencia Internacional de Prensa Internacional Indigena (AIPIN)
- TV Tamix
- Artículo 19 México y Centroamérica
- Cultural Survival Capítulo México
- DW Akademie, México
- Redes por la Diversidad, Equidad y Sustentabilidad A. C.
- Telecomunicaciones, Indígenas Comunitarias A.C.
- Red de Radiodifusoras y Televisoras Educativas y Culturales de México, A.C. (RED México)
- Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias (AMARC México)
- Red de Comunicadores Boca de Polen A.C.
- Ojo de Agua Comunicación
- Organización de Radios Comunitarias de Occidente, A. C.
- Red de Jóvenes Indígenas de América Latina
- Adriana Labardini
- Beatriz Solís
- Graciela Martínez Matías
- Aimée Vega Montiel
- Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil
- Fabiola Alicia Peña Ahumada
- Ma. Guadalupe Cortés Hernández (Pita Cortés)
- Clara Luz Álvarez
- Alejandro Cárdenas López
- Salma Jalife
- Irina Vázquez Zurita
- Patricia Ortega
- Lucía Lagunes
- Perla Olivia Rodríguez Reséndiz
- Leticia Cervantes
- Luna Marán
- Carolina María Vásquez García
- Leticia Salas
- Mayra López Pineda
Coordination Team 2020-2021
Presidency of the Republic
- Jesús Cantú Escalante
- Xóchitl Pimienta Franco
UNESCO México
- Blanca Cruz Cárcamo
- Alfonso Castellanos Ribot
- Sandra Ordóñez González
- Ana Cristina Ruelas
Additional results
