The Ministry of Culture is the public body in charge of establishing and conducting the national policy on culture, and responsible for promoting and disseminating the artistic and cultural expressions of Mexico, as well as the projection of the country's presence abroad; promotes education and artistic and cultural research; works in favor of the preservation, promotion and dissemination of cultural heritage and diversity, supports artistic creation and the development of creative industries to reinforce the generation and access of cultural goods and services, in addition to promoting universal access to culture taking advantage of the resources offered by digital technology.
The Political Constitution of the United Mexican States establishes in its Article 4 that “everyone has the right of access to culture and the enjoyment of the goods and services that the State provides in this area, as well as the exercise of their cultural rights. The State will promote the means for the diffusion and development of culture, attending to cultural diversity in all its manifestations and expressions with full respect for creative freedom”.
In a similar vein, based on the General Law of Culture and Cultural Rights published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on June 19, 2017, the cultural policy of the Mexican State is based on the principles of respect for creative freedom and cultural manifestations; equality of cultures; recognition of the country's cultural diversity; recognition of people's identity and dignity; self-determination and autonomy of indigenous peoples and their communities; and gender equality.
This Law guarantees cultural rights to access to culture and enjoy the goods and services provided by the State in this area; to actively and creatively participate in culture; to enjoy the prefered cultural events; the protection of intellectual property rights; and the use of information and communication technologies for the exercise of cultural rights, among others.
In line with the foregoing, the Regulation of the General Law on Culture and Cultural Rights, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on November 29, 2018, stipulates that actions of international connection in the matter of culture must be carried out based on the cultural diversity, respect for freedom of creation and under the principles of international cooperation, respect, protection and promotion of human rights.
The Regulation also recognizes that freedom of expression includes artistic expression, freedom of opinion and information, respect for cultural diversity, and the right to receive free and plural information that contributes to the full, free and complete development of cultural identity and cultural diversity.
For its part, the National Development Plan 2019-2024 defines as one of the objectives of the Government of Mexico “to promote and guarantee the human right of access to the culture, attending to cultural diversity in all its manifestations and expressions with full respect for creative, linguistic freedom, choice or belonging to a cultural identity, beliefs and participation ”.
Likewise, the Culture Sector Program 2020-2024, first in the country for the sector after the creation of the Ministry of Culture in 2016, establishes as priority objectives to reduce inequality in the exercise of cultural rights of individuals and communities, primarily in contexts of vulnerability, with its participation in processes that strengthen cultural cycles, practices and identities; consolidate the educational task of the Culture Sector to provide people with better options for training, updating and professionalization, under criteria of inclusion and recognition of diversity; progressively guarantee access to cultural goods and services to people, through the increase and diversification of the cultural offer in the territory and the cultural exchange of Mexico abroad; protect and conserve the diversity, memory and cultural heritage of Mexico through actions of preservation, research, protection, promotion of their knowledge and appropriation; strengthen the participation of culture in the national economy through the stimulation and professionalization of cultural industries and creative enterprises, as well as the protection of copyright; and enrich the diversity of the creative and cultural expressions of Mexico by recognizing and supporting creators, academics, communities and groups, among others.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Culture recognizes culture as an essential tool for human, social, and economic development not only of people, but also for communities and the country, and in this sense, among its primary functions are the promotion of the use of information and communication technologies for the dissemination and development of culture, as well as the cultural goods and services provided by the State, attending to cultural diversity in all its manifestations and expressions, respecting creative freedom.
As part of its priorities, the Ministry of Culture highlights the protection of copyright as a fundamental task of the Mexican State, which guarantees the protection of the creations of individuals, groups and communities, through the disclosure and protection of copyright in favor of creative diversity in Mexico, which fosters the improvement of the economic conditions of creative people , as well as greater production, development and circulation of cultural goods.
Among other priority objectives of the Ministry of Culture are the strengthening of the contribution of culture in the national economy through the cultural industries and creative companies, as well as the enrichment of the diversity of the creative and cultural expressions of Mexico, by recognizing and supporting creators, academics, communities and artistic groups.
In general terms, the current administration 2018-2024 has the fundamental objective of promoting innovation in cultural products and services, stimulating national and international cooperation, and strengthening the production, dissemination, distribution and enjoyment of cultural content and products, making accessible tools to detonate the strategic development of the various agents involved in the construction of the economy of culture.
Although the actions of the State have had significant progress, expanding access to various manifestations of culture, there is still work pending to guarantee the effective exercise of cultural rights that, in its broadest sense, to involve free expression and creation, the access to information and knowledge about material and intangible heritage, the free choice of a cultural identity, the belonging to one or more cultural communities or the active and creative participation in culture, to name just a few.
For this reason, the Ministry of Culture seeks to transform the traditional paradigm in which people and communities are seen as simple recipients of State action in the field of culture, to assume them as generators and as active participants in a series of processes with the cultural institutions, which will assume the role of facilitators.
Another pending field of action consists of developing intensive actions to strengthen the cultural diversity of Mexico, which should be expressed in the training and support of creative people, as well as in a greater production of indigenous, Afro-Mexican and popular culture works. Through the promotion, support and spread of these creations, it will contribute to a greater cultural participation of disadvantaged populations, as well as an increase in the well-being of the general population.
Promoting cultural plurality in the public space makes the production of these groups visible, widens the possibilities of choice and opens the possibilities for intercultural processes, in addition to contributing to the coexistence of different cultural expressions in conditions of equality.
The promotion of these policies, within the framework of the recognition of indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities as subjects of public law, is one of the challenges of the Mexican State, as well as a historical opportunity to incorporate community initiatives into the national project.
Besides this, the COVID-19 sanitary crisis has put in evidence the vulnerability of the cultural sector in general and the precarious working conditions of cultural workers in particular, accentuating the need for innovation in the development models of this sector and the need to expand its productive relations with other sectors.
In this sense, it has been identified the need to integrate and implement comprehensive regulatory frameworks to promote the country's cultural diversity, within and outside its territory, through a public policy aimed at promoting the creative and cultural industries of Mexico. Highlighting its dual cultural and economic nature, as well as to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, particularly in the digital space, and around the cultural misappropriation of the intangible cultural heritage of indigenous, Afro-Mexican and comparable peoples and communities.
In the same way, the current administration aims to reach a sustainable cultural economy model that breaks the digital gap and guarantees the redistribution of cultural wealth among all sectors of society.
On the other hand, Mexico has been selected to participate in the initiative “EU/UNESCO Expert Facility on the Governance of Culture in Developing Countries: Support for new regulatory frameworks to strengthen the cultural and creative industries and promote South-South cooperation”, funded by the European Union for contributing to the implementation of the 2005 Convention, and with the aim to strengthening the system of governance for culture in developing countries and reinforce the role of culture as a vector for sustainable development and poverty reduction.
As part of this initiative, Mexico will implement within the next two years the project "Designing policies to support indigenous and community radio in Mexico and incorporate indigenous content in the public and commercial media", with the aim of generating mechanisms in favor of the legal constitution and sustainability of this radio stations, as well as the production of content in indigenous languages, a regulatory framework and an environment that encourages the inclusion of content which reflects the country's cultural and linguistic diversity in commercial and public media. The project will design a standard regulation aimed at incorporating indigenous content in commercial and public media; it will require future applicants for broadcasting licenses to specify the percentage of indigenous or community programming during their broadcasts. In order to comply with this regulation and ensure that public and private media have access to indigenous and community content, a digital platform will be created. Consultations between the community and indigenous broadcasters will also take place in order to assess their capacity for content generation and contribution towards the platform (internet access, capacity development, etc).