Mexican radio station MVS fired popular journalist and talk show host Carmen Aristegui and her assistants Daniel Lizarraga and Irving Huerta, the reporting team responsible for exposing scandals that hurt the reputation of Mexico's president Enrique Peña Nieto. The exposure of the "casa blanca" scandal relating to the purchase of a multimillion dollar home from a contractor connected to a billion dollar infrastructure project became one of the major news stories of 2014. Now, with the firings at MVS, Aristegui has become the story. The station claims that Aristegui violated is code of ethics by using its logo in connection to her scandal-exposing platform MexicoLeaks. In a statement, the company explained "we sincerely regret the termination of our working relationship with Carmen Aristegui" and added that the decision was made because Aristegui had "comprised the name of the business" with her actions relating to MexicoLeaks.
The reaction on Twitter has been swift. Political analyst Alejandro Hope tweeted "I don't listen to Carmen Aristegui. Her style can irritate. But we have to defend her presence on the radio. Without plurality we all lose." Mexican political activist Denise Dresser tweeted that "the crime of Carmen Aristegui was to try to give Mexican citizens through #MexicoLeaks a platform to denounce corruption anonymously. Since she was going to receive tons of complaints they shut her up." From a business perspective, the decision is difficult to understand. Over the last two decades Aristegui has turned herself into one of Mexico's most famous journalists and has used her radio show to amass a huge following. Mexican journalist Enrique Acevedo tweeted "Firing Carmen Aristegui to protect the brand means they don't understand the client...unless the client lives in Los Pinos [Mexico's presidential residence.]" Journalist Jan-Albert Hootsen tweeted "Many Mexican Twitter media users are now tweeting that they will stop listening to @NoticiasMVS due to firing of Carmen #Aristegui."
Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui was fired shortly after exposing a major corruption scandal in... [+]
Although Cablevision does have a presence in Mexico, Mexican broadcast TV is dominated by Televisa and TV Azteca. Aristegui is a unique voice within the world of Mexican media. Roberto Remes, the director of the Fundacion Ciudad Humana tweeted "apart from the journalistic work of Carmen Aristegui, it's terrible that in Mexico liberty of expression is so vulnerable."
