MONITORING MEDIA IS CRUCIAL FOR DEMOCRACY

The equal coverage of media on electoral processes, as well as the oversight on informative treatment of controversies and public debate issues are essential tasks of civil society for achieving a desirable functioning of a democracy.

Being aware of the efforts made through decades to achieve a coverage that guarantees balance in the information of the media, and given the need for counting on an effective monitoring, Fundar launched a project about television coverage of the state elections, and decided to follow the actions of unconstitutionality of the Telecommunication Laws and the Federal Law of Radio and Television (known as “Televisa Law”) presented before the Nation’s Supreme Court of Justice. The analysis of the coverage of information considered the three main news programs of Mexican television.

Regarding the coverage of state elections, Fundar studies the local processes of 2007 in Baja California, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatan and Zacatecas.

For example, the results of the monitoring of television in Baja California concluded that one out of five spots with political propaganda transmitted negative messages and violated the Electoral law of the state. According to the study, negative campaigns contaminated the electoral process and moved the political proposals out of the center of attention. Besides, with the dirty media war the institutional stability was devastated, the parties were weakened and the democracy was affected.

In the Electoral process of Yucatan it was found that, even if media fulfilled their commitment of granting an equal coverage to the campaigns, the television companies favored their preferred candidates with visual resources.

On the treatment of the “Televisa Law”, Fundar observed that TV Azteca and Televisa grew apart from their position of information providers and privileged their role as interested parties in the conflict.

In contrast, Channel 11 had better quality coverage, since it opened spaces for the participation of community radio stations, previously ignored by television companies. “News eleven” built true information stories according to journalistic rules and explained in depth the reach of the Supreme Court’s decisions when modifying some of the arrangements contained in the Radio and Television Law.

 

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