In July of this year, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law a new regulatory framework for the country’s telecommunications sector (Ley de Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión, “Broadcasting and Telecommunciations Act”). The legislation was designed to put into practice a 2013 constitutional reform that, according to the Mexican government, aimed to increase competition in a historically monopolised industry and increase digital access.

However, human rights activists, press freedom organisations, and legal experts are wary of the impact that certain provisions of the law may have on freedom of expression in Mexico. In particular, these groups have raised concerns over the lack of an independent body to oversee the use of data gathered under the cyber-surveillance system foreseen by the law, which the government has justified as a necessary tool to fight endemic crime.

The law requires telecommunications providers to store vast amounts of data from clients in Mexico, and grants access to this data to national security agencies and local police officers in the name of national security, as well as to tax authorities, among others. Furthermore, the government now has the power to block Internet services in certain areas and to track mobile-phone usage, measures again deemed necessary to promote public safety.

Luis Fernando García, attorney for the rights group Internet Libre México (Free Internet Mexico), sees it differently as all of these provisions entail a breach to users’ privacy and may put journalists in danger in what is already one of the deadliest countries in the world for the media.

Critics of the Telecommunications Act have accused the government of rushing it through Congress without significant debate, and ignoring an official plea presented to the Mexican Senate on July 2, 2014 by more than 100 international human-rights organisations to carefully study the law’s possible ramifications against freedom of expression in the country.

IPI News Innovation Platform Coordinator Javier Luque interviewed Luis Fernando García on the sidelines of the Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul earlier this month. You can watch the complete video interview on here.