“Don’t watch TV Azteca,” said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum during a press conference on May 25, 2026. The head of state was reacting to a campaign by the collective Mexicanos al Grito de Paz (Mexicans at the Cry for Peace), which accuses her government of having ties to organized crime. According to Sheinbaum, the dissemination of this campaign is linked to social media profiles close to Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the owner of the media conglomerate TV Azteca.
The television broadcaster condemned the President’s remarks, describing them as “an evident attempt at censorship and a direct assault on freedom of expression and of the press.”
To this, Sheinbaum replied that she was not “exercising the power of the State to censor a television station,” but was merely expressing her personal opinion.
“TV Azteca—the country’s second-largest television broadcaster—perpetuates gender stereotypes, shows no respect for women’s human rights, and operates within a culture of misogynistic entertainment. That is a reality,” observes Cirenia Celestino Ortega, director of the organization Comunicación e Información de la Mujer AC (CIMAC).
“We may dislike their style, their news coverage approach, or their editorial line. However—setting TV Azteca aside for a moment—President Sheinbaum’s criticism narrows the scope of public debate and limits access to information, thereby undermining not only the right to information but also freedom of expression,” continues the expert in feminist journalism.
“As Head of State, Claudia Sheinbaum must refrain from making the kind of statements that could stigmatize media outlets and that violate the duty to guarantee media pluralism,” Leopoldo Maldonado, regional director of the organization Article 19, tells DW.
In his view, the President’s comment fits into “a broader political communication strategy that has taken root in Mexico since the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador—a strategy characterized by a highly confrontational stance against media outlets critical of the administrations in power.” Thus, for instance, the regional director of Article 19 criticizes the introduction of “The Lie Detector”—a weekly segment of the president’s morning press conference—through which “the State seeks to position itself as a fact-checker.”
Maldonado points out that Mexico is the most dangerous country in the Americas for practicing journalism.
“The state of freedom of expression remains deeply concerning,” he asserts. He adds that there has been an increase in “pressure on media outlets, public and digital smear campaigns,” as well as cases of “judicial harassment.”
In 2025, Article 19 documented 69 cases of legal actions filed against journalists and media organizations. “It is the year in which we have recorded the highest number of such cases,” he states.
For her part, Martha Ramos, Chair of the Press Freedom Committee at the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), highlights that the impunity rate regarding investigations into physical attacks against media professionals remains above 95 percent. “Attacking a journalist carries minimal to no consequences” in Mexico, she notes.
Furthermore, the IAPA has documented legislative initiatives—at both the federal and state levels—that it deems “threatening to press freedom.”
In an interview with DW, Ramos cites as an example a recent initiative in the state of San Luis Potosí, which empowers authorities to determine whether specific content has been “manipulated—or not—using artificial intelligence.” The arbitrary application of this regulation would allow authorities to “fabricate grounds to detain and imprison those responsible—primarily journalists,” the IAPA expert explains.
Indeed, just last week, three individuals were detained in San Luis Potosí on the grounds of allegedly manipulating images and videos using artificial intelligence. Furthermore, there are eight outstanding arrest warrants, according to the watchdog group Article 19.
In the view of Celia del Palacio Montiel, coordinator of the Center for Cultural and Communication Studies at the University of Veracruz, “freedom of expression and the right to information in Mexico have been severely undermined as a result of direct attacks by government officials, who expect subservience in exchange for resources distributed in an opaque and discretionary manner.”
Journalists are also “threatened by criminal actors acting in collusion with state agents,” asserts Del Palacio in statements to DW.
All of this, she notes, “has resulted in self-censorship and a state of structural violence against the media.”
Hence, Cirenia Celestino Ortega, director of CIMAC, emphasizes the need to “construct narratives that recognize journalistic work as a key tool for building a democratic society.” Recognizing this work, she points out, “is a first step toward…”
Source: msn
