The firing of a prominent journalist from her radio show has stirred a debate over freedom of expression in Mexico and allegations that the government still holds sway over the media.
Carmen Aristegui said on Wednesday that she was let go by MVS radio for refusing to apologize for her comments on Friday regarding a congressman’s allegation that Mexican President Felipe Calderon is an alcoholic.
Aristegui said the accusation was serious and Calderon should respond, though the lawmaker provided no evidence.
Officials from Calderon’s office have said such rumors don’t merit a response, but on Wednesday the president’s personal secretary, Roberto Gil, defended him.
Gil said that in the last year Calderon has attended 1,779 public events, or about seven a day.
“During the four years of his administration, he has never missed any event because of health problems,” Gil said. “This work pace is the best proof of his good health, physical strength and integrity.”
MVS announced Aristegui’s dismissal on Monday, saying she violated the station’s code of ethics by giving credibility to a rumor.
“An act like this is only imaginable in a dictatorship that nobody wants for Mexico: punishing for opining or questioning rulers,” Aristegui said at a news conference.
DEBATE
The firing of a media celebrity, who is ubiquitous on the Mexican airwaves between her morning drive-time radio show and a talk show on the cable TV channel CNN en Espanol, blew up on Twitter and caused a congressional debate.
Aristegui has been honored with top journalism prizes and is known for a direct style of questioning that is unusual in Mexico, a country where media independence is still evolving after years of government control.
Some journalists say freedom of expression remains an issue because government advertising is a major source of funding for many publications, and thus leverage for influence.
Aristegui claimed Calderon’s office called MVS after her show and demanded a public apology. She said the station is under government pressure because it is awaiting approval to renew its radio frequency concession.
An official from Calderon’s office denied it had demanded an apology and insisted it had nothing to do with Aristegui’s dismissal. In a statement, the president’s office said the federal government has been “scrupulously respectful of freedom of expression” and says it does not mix politics with issues of telecommunications.
“The decision in that area are made with full transparency and strict adherence to the law and without any other consideration,” the statement said.
Aristegui, on her program on Friday, was discussing lawmaker Gerardo Fernandez Norona, a member of the leftist Labor Party who caused a ruckus in Congress last week when he held up a banner with Calderon’s photograph that read: “Would you let a drunk drive your car? No, right? So why would you let him run the country?”
Aristegui defended her decision not to apologize.
NO APOLOGY
“Not only am I not retracting myself, and I’m not apologizing because there is nothing to apologize for, but on the contrary, I reiterate that the presidency should comment about this issue,” she said.
However, some Mexican journalists are not on Aristegui’s side.
In a column on Tuesday, Ciro Gomez Leyva, editor of the newspaper Milenio, dismissed allegations that Calderon has a drinking problem as unfounded rumors spread by “mediocre Labor Party lawmakers, one or two columnists and malicious tweeters.”
Lawmakers debated the subject on Tuesday, with some Labor Party members insisting there must have been government pressure to fire Aristegui.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of