Politics apparently behind removal of radio journalist

By Franc Contreras

Carmen Aristegui is one of Mexico's most well-known and respected broadcast journalists. Aristegui continues as the host of her own television program on CNN en Español, and until rcently, milliones of people tuned in daily for her outstanding radio news program, Hoy por Hoy.

Citing editorial incompatibility over a pending format change, broadcast giant Televisa Radio last week decided not to renew its contract with Aristegui, effectively taking her program off the air despite high ratings that made her one of the most listened to personalities in all of Latin America.

“The editorial model that the company wants is not compatible with the model I have defended, and the company decided not to renew the contract,” she told the weekly news magazine Proceso.

Sources inside Mexico's media industry tell Mexico Monitor that Televisa had been trying since April, 2006 to remove Aristegui from its on-air programming. It was precisely at that time that Aristegui came out strongly against a law that would have given Televisa and the other half of Mexico's television duopoly, TV Azteca, nearly unlimited control over future television technology here.

From 2006 to late 2007, Aristegui received support from the Spanish media company, Grupo Prisa, a partner with Televisa Radio. A high-ranking official at Prisa said, "if Televisa touches Aristegui, it touches Grupo Prisa." But suddenly that important base of support evaporated.

Analysts tell us that Grupo Prisa wanted to show loyalty to the government of President Felipe Calderon -- which apparently disdains Aristegui -- in exchange for on-going contracts to print millions of school text books each year. For years Grupo Prisa's publishing firm, Santillana, has had a lucrative contract with the Mexican government to print those text books.

Aristegui's stance against the consolidation of media power in Mexico was only one of the sins she committed against the elite here. Her daily news program Hoy por Hoy was apparently also problematic because it regularly featured stories that most other broadcast news organizations, loyal to the powers that be, shyed away from.

During Mexico's hotly disputed presidential elections in 2006, she often put leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on the air and did so even after federal electoral judges decided not to conduct a full recount of voters' ballots.

She also gave constant coverage to the case of an elderly woman named Ernestina Ascensio Rosario, who was raped by Mexican soldiers in the town of Zongolica, Vera Cruz state. Mexican President Felipe Calderon said her death was caused by an intestinal problem, according to reports here. No other news broadcaster gave that story nearly as much air time.

And she repeated interviewed the top players in the case of journalist Lydia Cacho, who allegedly faced repression from the governor of Puebla state after publishing a book (Los Demonios de Eden) about powerful business men involved in a child sex ring.

Aristegui also reported on the dealings of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the embattled Governor of Oaxaca, who faced the possibility of being tossed from office after a popular uprising in 2006 that questioned the legitimacy of his regime. Her programs included interviews with young adults who said they were sexually molested by Catholic priests here and that Mexico's leading bishop, Norberto Rivera, allegedly worked to protect those priests from legal prosecution.

Now Mexico's leading newspaper columnists are calling Televisa's removal of Aristegui a blatant case of politically motivated censorship.

LORENZO MEYER in the leading daily Reforma:
"The Spanish firm, Grupo Prisa, offered Carmen Aristegui's head on a plate to Televisa, a decision that must please the federal government, the governors of Puebla and Oaxaca states and the Catholic church, among others."

DENISE DRESSER, Reforma:
"The decision to silence Aristegui shows the manner in which the government uses its power. It should consider the necessity of critical voices like hers in the democratic process here."

JOAQUIN LOPEZ DORIGA, dedicated his daily opinion column in Milenio today to Aristegui: "For Carmen, who I miss in the morning." But the top anchor Televisa TV news so far has not criticized his company's decision not to renew Aristegui's contract.