'No Nos Callaran': Mexico's Media Find Stronger Voice by Calling on Old Tool Whitney Eulich - Christian Science Monitor
go to original November 6, 2015

A street vendor sells copies of Mexico's leading daily El Universal newspaper with a blackened-out front page that reads 'We will not be silenced,' along a street in Mexico City, August 31, 2015. The page is in reference to the killing of Mexican news photographer Ruben Espinosa and four other people found dead in a middle-class neighborhood of the capital on July 31. (Henry Romero/Reuters)

In 2001, the Mexican daily Milenio printed a story lambasting then-President Vicente Fox for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on furnishing his home.

“Towel Gate” was heralded by some as a moment of transparency, based as it was on official data published on a government website. The story ran as Mr. Fox was pushing for the first ever freedom of information law, which came into effect in 2002, just two years after Mexico ended seven decades of closed one-party rule.

The move made Mexico home to one of the most robust freedom of information systems in the region. And it has since become an increasingly powerful tool for journalists and civil society – witness the past year.

Stories over the past several months have implicated a government minister and the first family in house-buying scandals, and helped shine light on official involvement in tragedies like the disappearance of 43 college students in the state of Guerrero. It’s been used to expose inefficiencies in the state-owned oil company Pemex, and to cover the evolution of drug cartels over the past 40 years, showing how each president’s policies have helped or hindered the cartels' expansion.

Mexico remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, with 35 killed since 1992. Self-censorship is common, due to threats of violence or fear that government funding to media outlets in the form of advertisements might be curtailed, and pay is typically low.

Although high-profile stories like these haven't led to officials resigning or laws changed, there is a growing sense that the public can rely on the veracity of these reports, given the government-released data behind them. And this has helped build confidence in the fourth estate and its watchdog role.

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