Enrique Hernández Padrón and Graciela Castañón Aguilar, former reporters for El Portal in the central Mexican city of San Luis Potosí, say they were fired under pressure from the state government to keep from losing advertising money, Mexico’s National Social Communication Center (CENCOS) reports.
According to Hernández, the owner of El Portal was pressured by a state communications official, who threatened to cancel advertising contracts the weekly paper had signed with several departments if the two reporters were not fired, Código San Luis explains.
CENCOS called on state authorities to implement clear rules on government ad spending to avoid its use as a tool for censorship.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
