Modern Mexico a Look at Media-Government Relations
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Modern Mexico A Look at Media-Government Relations Tanius Karam* o t o h P E V A / a v a N o i n o t n A elations between the media and the government MEXICO ’S HISTORY have a history of tension, knowing silences and also OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS Rviolations. Review ing them can help us understand why the media has certain sociopolitical characteristics The bases for modern journalism began to be established and its messages are structured the way they are. during the Mexican Revolution, which in its first phase guaranteed freedom of the press. Newspapers with revolu - tionary ideology emerged and those that opposed Madero * International coordinator of the In ter national Catholic Press were tolerated. During this period, official mouthpieces for 1 Union’s Network of Young Journalists ( UCIP ). the different revolutionary leaders were created. As of 14 Politics 1913, a tendency began for the press President Lázaro Cárdenas, for his School of Journalism, was founded. to align itself with particular political part, broadened out the instruments for “Special” and regular payments to jour - par ties. El Universal , founded in 1916, controlling the press: he established nalists were also instituted at the same and Excélsior , first published in 1917, the Autonomous Press and Publicity time that critical journalists were the both still in circulation today, were the Department to centralize state informa - victims of open repression and “acci - first great national newspapers pro - tion to the press. His successors would dents.” 5 Paradoxically, in 1952, Alemán du ced along industrial lines; journal - reinforce this control: Manuel Ávila felt it was his destiny to des ignate ists be came full-time employees and Camacho, through the General Infor - June 7 as “Freedom of the Press Day,” a di vi sion of labor was introduced that mation Office, controlled by the Mi n - which continues to be celebrated until in cluded editors, directors, information is try of the Interior, and Miguel Ale - today. chiefs, editorialists, columnists and re - mán, through the ministries’ press Repeated incidents of repression porters. of fices. Through government control of against journalists and publications oc - During the administrations of Álva - production and distribution of news - curred under the administration of ro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, print, Cárdenas and later presidents Pre sident Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (1964- some newspapers were censored or discovered a decisive form of influence. 1970). After Excélsior criticized the closed down. In 1926, a serious rift in The mo nopoly on paper produc tion in 1968 massacre of Tlatelolco, in 1969 government-press relations occurred Mexico has precedents that illustrate its building was the target for a dyna - when Excélsior and El Uni versal began the competition among the great news - mite bomb. The government accused to espouse an editorial line different from the government’s about the con - flict between church and state: they The bases for modern journalism began supported the Cristero movement, to be established during the Mexican Revolution, which expressed the Catholic Church’s social influence, as opposed to that of which in its first phase guaranteed freedom of the press. the secularist state. In 1927, during the conflict, news paper articles were sub - jected to strict censorship. 2 papers of that period. With the cre - the left of the attack, even though most As of 1929, government press policy ation of the company Paper Pro ducer accounts lay the responsibility at its changed. With the foundation of the and Importer ( PIPSA ) and the Auto no - own door. In this same context, employ - National Revolutionary Party ( PNR ), mous Press and Publicity Depart ment, ees of the Communist newspaper La the forerunner of today’s Institutional Cárdenas created two new channels Voz de México (The Voice of Mexico) Revolutionary Party ( PRI ), the press was through which he could exercise in - were arrested on July 26, 1968, when used for the system’s corporatist pro - fluence over the media. state security forces occupied and des - cess. According to Fátima Fernández During the Ávila Camacho admin - troyed its printing presses. Prior to that, Chris tlieb, 1929 was the crucial year istration (1940-1946), then-Minister in 1966, the magazine Izquierda polí ti ca not only because of the foundation of of the Interior Miguel Alemán engi - (Political Left) and its editor, Manuel El Nacional , the fledgling PNR ’s offi - neered a coup at the daily Novedades , Marcué Pardiñas, had already been cial voice, 3 but also because newspa - founded in 1936 by Ignacio P. Herre - the victims of repression. pers that belonged to the established rías, to use it for his political ambitions During the first phase of the Eche - press were brusquely forced into line as a presidential candidate. Just as Ca - verría administration (1970-1976), by the government. This was the case lles had with Excélsior , when he was established newspapers enjoyed almost of Excélsior in 1929, during the Calles president, Alemán took over No veda - unrestricted freedom of press. The administration, and in 1976 under Luis des , which at that point be came his alternative press, specifically the weekly Echeverría, and that of Nove dades in official mouthpiece. 4 ¿Por qué? (Why?), and Excélsior , how - 1944 when Miguel Alemán was the In 1949 under Alemán, the first ever, were treated very differently, as Minister of the Interior. journalism school, the Carlos Septién we shall see. 15 Voices of Mexico • 59 The administrations of Luis Eche - Nov ember of that year. A year later, tic system and that it would be main - verría and José López Portillo (1976- another group of former Excélsior con - tained unfettered, free of pressures 1982) witnessed significant movements tributors and staff headed up by Ma - and restrictions. In his speeches, De and changes in the Mexican media. nuel Becerra Acosta founded the daily la Madrid repeated that without a free, State participation in the media grew Unomásuno (One-Plus-One) in No - responsible press, there was no true and the supposed “mixed” model of v ember 1977, a newspaper that was a democracy and that freedom of opin - communications was formalized. At valuable, critical source of in for ma - ion was not something to be bargained the same time, the practical monop - tion during the López Portillo admin - over or bought. Actually, many facts oly of private television was consoli - istration. 6 reveal the very deficient conditions in dated and its influence extended to The López Portillo administration which journalists had to work. Suffice the broadest variety of cultural ex pres - was very tolerant at first, but govern - it to mention the number of journal - sions and entertainment. On the other ment offices’ bribing journalists rep - ists murdered: 6 were killed during hand, attempts at political reform and resented a significant attack on an Echeverría’s presidency; 12, under Ló - a broader political participation of alter - unrestricted freedom of press. When pez Portillo; 24, under De la Madrid; native forces questioned as never be - the economic crisis broke out openly and 50 under Carlos Salinas de Gor - fore the structure and function of com - in 1982 and reports surfaced about bad ta ri. In 1986 the offices of Publica cio - munications me chanisms in a coun try management and corruption in the nes Llergo, publisher of the ma ga zine where, at the same time, the right to Mex ican oil company Pemex, Proceso Im pacto (Impact), which in February information was formally established, attacked the president directly. This of that year had put out a supplement entitled 1985: un año trágico para Mé - x ico (1985: A Tragic Year for Mexico) During the Salinas administration, 645 attacks against were raided. The company was later the press were detected; under Ernesto Zedillo , by 1999, attached by the government and editor 764 attacks had been perpetrated against the media and Mario Sojo and assistant editor Ja vier journalists to inhibit freedom of ex pression and information. Ibarrola forced to resign; the operation finished with the confiscation of the company and its “sale” to a dummy a right whose practical meaning is yet time the government sanctioned the purchaser from the Ministry of the to be determined. magazine by withdrawing all its adver - Interior. It was not until 1975 that the first tising. That same year, the opposition The 1988 elections were important bill about the right to information was magazine Política (Politics), the radio for the media. From the begin ning of introduced into Congress; it was an program Opinión Pública (Public Opi n - the campaign, it was clear that they attempt to regulate repression against ion) and the communi cations non gov - would be unique in Mexican political the press and to modernize the com - ernmental organization Cencos were all history not only because of social un - munications law which was so ambi - the object of government reprisals. It rest, but because of the gradual awak - guous that it lent itself to different was at the end of the López Portillo ening of broad political sectors. In interpretations. administration that the Mexican Con - January 1988, the National Action It is fundamental to mention here s titution was amended to include an Party’s presidential candidate, Manuel the conflict inside Excélsior in 1976 eight-word reference to the commu - J. Clouthier, organized a campaign when the paper stepped up its criti - nications media: