The president advisor of the INE, Guadalupe Taddeiis following in the authoritarian footsteps of his predecessor Lorenzo Córdova Vianello in matters of restrict freedom of expression and place operational regulations of the institute above the freedoms of ideas and expression defended by the Constitutionespecially from administrative inquisitions.
The least important thing is that Taddei does not know how political communication works and is applying administrative regulations that will have effects against freedom of expression. Through an arbitrary and short-term statement, the INE He addressed the Russian journalist Inna Afigenova, who has worked for the Russia Today system and is now an interviewer for the Spanish channel opened by former vice president Pablo Iglesias, of the left-wing political group Todos Podemos, to investigate her for her interview with President López Obrador.
Last week, the foreign journalist announced on her social networks the energetic, authoritarian and peremptory request – she is given a period of 24 hours – to clarify the reasons for her interview, to say whether the questions were planted by the Mexican government. and even report if he received any financial emolument, exactly the same thing that Córdova Vianello did as president advisor of the INE not so much to monitor political communication traps, but to generate an environment of authoritarianism that would force journalists to reduce their critical tone.
The INE had every absurd right to force the presidency of the Republic to comb the content of the morning sessions to purge them of any interpretation by the electoral authority of political bias at election time. However, the matter has reached the authoritarian point where they want to subject foreign citizens to comply with rules that no other country imposes on non-national communicators. The response of the journalist Afinogenov was mocking, aggressive and included the participation of the Spanish political leader Pablo Iglesias saying that he is responsible for the media outlet that interviewed President López Obrador.
Taddei's INE is not only returning to the authoritarian and coercive practices of freedom of expression that Córdova Vianello privileged, but its mechanisms of attempted control of political communication in the media are reminiscent of the not-too-distant old days — by Manuel Bartlett, for example–in which the content of the information was controlled to benefit the PRI.
The files opened against journalists – such as the Russian interviewer – contradict the absolute exercise of freedom of expression and of the press that journalists must have. Córdova Vianello ran into the wall of the Electoral Court that brought down at least two very express accusations against journalists for disseminating political content in media outlets that, according to the president's advisor, were suspicious – that is to say: without conclusive evidence – of seek the benefit of a party or candidate. The Court made it very clear that these two cases were about the exercise of constitutional freedom of expression and Córdova Vianello had to swallow his tantrum.
One of the basic characteristics of democracy lies in access to information – the other is participation, according to Robert Dahl's polyarchy model – because voters throughout the PRI political dictatorship suffered from the control of the information through coercive mechanisms similar to those applied by Córdova Vianello and now Taddei.
The political model that Presidential Counselor Taddei is applying in the electoral structure and that Córdova Vianello enthroned in the INE is the well-known Chilean post-dictatorship scheme of protected democracy, which is nothing other than a paternalistic and therefore authoritarian approach of electoral officials to control the election processes and that they are strictly subordinated to the considerations of those responsible for elections and not to democracy that requires open access to information to make decisions at the polls. This model of protected democracy was inherited by Pinochet when he lost control of his dictatorship and headed towards leaving power, but maintaining authoritarian, verticalist and statist mechanisms that prevent true informational democracy.
Taddei's decision to open a file against Afigenova is bad news for constitutional freedom of expression and leads to aggressive responses because in her tweet the Russian journalist takes the official INE document, rolls it up and sends the message to the president's advisor. Please put it where it “fits best.”
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