L'affaire Aristegui draws international attention

While I'm happy that BBC would cover something else than Mexico's narco killings, I'd wish it to be on something more positive than the possible persecution of a journalist.

As the venerable British network reports in a very balanced piece,

"some columnists saying her sacking raises questions about the freedom of the media in Mexico.But others have said that the allegations about Mr Calderon are malicious lies."

There are indeed two very different issues meshed together here, as Héctor Aguilar Camín also noted in his column yesterday:

1) The company fires a worker for having broken their own ethics code, "reporting a rumour as fact"
2) The presidency of Felipe Calderón forced her company to fire her.

The firing of Arisegui was really stupid, and in my eyes a far too harsh of a reaction in any case. But that is something utterly different than whether the station fired her because of pressure from the Mexican federal authorities. Clearly, if Calderón's men put pressure on MVS radio to do so, it would be an outrageous scandal, which should result in serious consequences for the administration.

Yet does any evidence exist that MVS received orders from Calderón to fire Aristegui?

Too quickly, too many have immediately sought to jump on this very serious allegation, not needing a drop of evidence other than their own suspicions. I personally find it unlikely that he would take such a drastic step that, if uncovered, would likely drastically damage his public standing, not to speak of his legacy. Maybe I am too naive, but maybe those who regard this as a deliberate attack on the freedom of the media are also a bit too conspiratorial.