Thursday, August 16, 2012

Dramatic turn in Mexico media scandal: MVSgate

This is truly preposterous: The director of the MVS Comunicaciones media group, whose TV concession provides a rare alternative to Mexico's electronic media duopoly dominated by the infamous Televisa and TV Azteca, has confirmed what many has suspected: The PAN government of  Felipe Calderón has launched a political attack on the station.

The government's decision to put up MVS's concession claiming that it is under-utilizing its 2.5 GHz bandwidth appears only to have been an excuse, as MVS head Joaquín Vargas Guajardo confirmed that the government told him its license would only be renewed if he fired the renowned investigative journalist Carmen Aristegui, as well as to desist from an earlier MVS complaint against a proposed Televisa purchase of Iusacell, a cell phone provider.

This hit the front pages of El Universal today. With Vargas' claim, the MVS scandal - let's just call it MVSgate - drastically deepens. According to Vargas, Javier Lozano, then federal secretary of work, told him, "we've found that you're 2.5 GHz project has merit, but if you rehire that journalist, your project is fucked and you can forget about this government until its last day."

What a way to go out for Calderón: Political persecution of the media.

Source:
Se agrava crisis por la banda ancha. El Universal, Aug. 16, 2012