Soft censorship or indirect government censorship, includes a variety of actions intended to influence media—short of closures, imprisonments, direct censorship of specific content, or physical attacks on journalists or media facilities.
Publicidad Oficial focuses on financial aspects of official soft censorship in Mexico. In this country, the allocation of Government advertising is the more common tool to exert soft censorship and is an integral part of the country’s complicated media landscape. Absent precise and clear rules, it is a means to influence or even a tool to blackmail media owners and journalists.
Federal and local governments use official advertising to shape media outlets’ editorial line and push partisan agendas. Opaque and arbitrary allocation of official advertising constrains pluralism and a diversity of voices by selectively funding media outlets that support officials and their policies.
Read their latest report here: Buying Compliance:Governmental Advertising and Soft Censorship in Mexico
Twitter: @PubliOficial • @fundarMexico
México Infórmate works to promote access to public information in Mexico. At the same time, it seeks to generate a national dialogue involving civil society organizations, governmental organizations and academic institutions on the importance of the right to know.
Its main objectives are:
- To involve citizens in public affairs and get them to participate, in an informed manner, of decision-making processes and government oversight.
- To inspire journalists to use the laws of access to information as a critical tool for investigative work.
- To establish dialogue channels among media, public bodies and the general public, to discuss the importance of the right to know.
- To promote the role of the culture of transparency in the consolidation of participatory democracy in Mexico.
- To contribute to the dissemination of the culture of transparency in Mexico and promote the practical use of the laws of access to information as a tool to improve the quality of life for people.
México Infórmate has been involved in the drafting of a citizens’ legal initiative on transparency (unfortunately, legislators are seeking to negatively modify it, even when they themselves invited civil society to participate).
The organization also trains journalists on right to information and transparency issues and periodically publishes its own blog in El Universal, one of the major national newspapers.
So far, México Infórmate has published three studies on the Mexican Congress, the Administration of Justice System. More recently, it carried out a study on local Institutes of Transparency, which can be consulted here.
Facebook: México Infórmate •Twitter:@MxInformate
Fundación Ciudadana Civio (Civio) is a Spanish non-profit organization established in February of 2012.
Its strategy is to increase transparency and accountability through the use of information technologies and data journalism.
Their commitment is to promote transparency and the recognition and democratization of the right to access to information.
Civio’s ultimate goal is to increase citizens’ participation and awareness and to achieve significant cultural and legislative changes fostering a stronger democracy.
Civio’s combine web applications and data journalism to develop innovative digital tools that facilitate access and interpretation of public information.
Through the use of data mining, scraping, analysis and visualization, as well as the generation of quality content, Civio addresses fields such as public budgets, governmental pardons, access to information and conflicts of interest.
Facebook: Fundación Ciudadana Civio • Twitter: @Civio
Founded in 2012, Borde Político is a NGO created with the purpose of developing digital tools for monitoring the performance of the Mexican Congress.
Through this platform, citizens can better know the work of their representatives and find interactive tools designed to function as simple mechanisms for consulting, displaying or disseminate relevant information related to both Chamber of the Mexican Congress.
Since 2013, through a specialized project named Borde Jurídico, the transparency effort extended to observe the work of the Judiciary Branch.
Its team consists of 13 people, which includes political scientists, designers, lawyers, philosophers and programmers is dedicated to digitize, illustrate and make available, in real time, information generated in the Congress and the Supreme Court. The digital platforms developed by Borde Político aim to encourage citizen contributions and debate to political processes and legislation.
In addition, Borde Político is part of the Opening Parliament Alliance (Mexico) and has established important partnerships to work on matters of open budget and legislative budgets with renowned civil society organizations in Mexico such as Fundar and Métrica Pública.
Twitter: @bordepolitico /@bordejuridico • Facebook: Borde Político, Borde Jurídico • Youtube: Borde Político, Borde Jurídico
