Citizen Communication Councils in Mexico’s 2025 Telecom Law

Abstract

The goal of this research is to critically analyze the exclusion of Citizen Communication Councils from the new 2025 Federal Law on Telecommunications and Broadcasting in Mexico, as well as the implications of this exclusion for communicative democracy, citizen participation, and media governance.         The methodology was grounded in a comparative legal, political, and communicative analysis of the 2025 Telecom reform, examining legislative documents, constitutional frameworks, national and international regulations, and the historical precedents of Citizen Councils within the Mexican public media system. The results indicate that, although the new legislation incorporated advancements in connectivity, digital regulation, and the strengthening of communicative rights, it simultaneously eliminated fundamental mechanisms for civic participation and democratic checks and balances. This omission undermined social oversight, media plurality, editorial independence, and the conception of communication as a strategic public good. Therefore, Citizen Councils must be constitutionally enshrined within the Telecom Law to guarantee plurality, social oversight, editorial autonomy, and communicative democracy.