Community, Indigenous and Afro-descendant media organizations from across Mexico participated in an intensive training program on technical and radio production skills, organizational and management practices, and outreach strategies to strengthen the visibility and influence of their communities’ voices in the country’s public sphere. The in-person training camp was organized by the Canto de Cenzontles collective as part of the project Canto de Cenzontles: Strengthening Indigenous and Afro-descendant Voices through Community Media, funded by UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).
Over the course of three days at the Center for Studies on Rural Development (CESDER) in Puebla, more than 50 communicators, the majority of them women, representing 14 indigenous radio stations, three Afro-Mexican media outlets and three community media organizations from eight Mexican states, developed tools and skills to enhance their production strategies and media presence in response to current digital, economic and social challenges.
The training is part of a broader Canto de Cenzontles initiative implemented with the support of REDES A.C., Boca de Polen, Ojo de Agua Comunicación, CESDER and UNESCO. Its primary objective is to strengthen a plural and diverse media ecosystem in Mexico, normalize the use of indigenous languages, and help ensure that the knowledge and perspectives of indigenous peoples and afro-descendant communities assume a leading role within civic space.
More than 23.2 million people in Mexico identify as indigenous and 2.5 million as Afro-descendant, according to 2020 data from Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). Nevertheless, both groups continue to face structural barriers to producing and accessing media content that enables them, among other things, to share their collective perspectives, preserve their languages (more than 360 indigenous language varieties grouped into 68 linguistic families), and counter biased or discriminatory representations.
Indigenous communities held only 69 media licenses and Afro-Mexican communities just nine, together accounting for less than 1% of the 8,406 broadcasting concessions registered as active by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT) at the beginning of 2026. By comparison, community media represent 4.6% of concessions, public media 11.5%, and commercial media 83%.
As part of the IPDC project, community, Indigenous and Afro-descendant media throughout Mexico are receiving support through microgrants, partnerships with community and mainstream media, educational and research resources, and mentoring for radio content creation, which will be broadcast in the coming months through public media outlets and digital platforms.
READ MORE:https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/community-indigenous-and-afro-descendant-media-strengthen-their-capacities-consolidate-plural-and?hub=701
