Carmen Aristegui, perhaps Mexico’s most well-known journalist, was fired Sunday night after a brief but public spat with her broadcaster, MVS Noticias. The clash began last week, and is allegedly related to Aristegui and her team’s involvement in the launch of MéxicoLeaks, an online platform meant to facilitate anonymous leaks relating to government wrongdoing.
MVS has claimed that Aristegui and her team improperly used the MVS brand in connection to the site without “express authorization,” making it seem that the broadcaster was a sponsor of the platform. After running ads disavowing any connection to the site, MVS fired two members of Aristegui’s investigative unit, Daniel Lizárraga and Irving Huerta, on Thursday.
In her Friday broadcast, Aristegui condemned the move, saying, “Instead of firing them, they should be given prizes.” The journalists had unearthed some of the biggest stories in Mexico last year, such as the “casa blanca” scandal, which exposed an alleged conflict of interest involving a multimillion dollar mansion reportedly designed for Mexico’s presidential family, and owned by a contractor doing business with the government. Aristegui made Lizárraga’s and Huerta’s reinstatement a condition for her continued collaboration with MVS. By Sunday, the broadcaster had announced her removal. “MVS Radio does not accept Carmen Aristegui’s ultimatum,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
The move was met with dismay, both on social media and outside MVS headquarters in Mexico City, where over 500 people gathered to protest last night. There is widespread speculation that the firing was politically motivated. “This is as if the Washington Post fired [Bob] Woodward and [Carl] Bernstein in the 1970s,” Mexican political scientist Sergio Aguayo told the Los Angeles Times.
Appearing outside MVS headquarters on Monday, Aristegui vowed to fight the decision. “Our lawyers tell us that they don’t have the right to do what they are doing, our lawyers tell us that we are going to fight, that this is a blow to freedom of expression,” she said.
