La Jornada April 23 pg. 1,2
Televisa and TV-Azteca falsify information regarding Larrainzar:
foreign and Mexican journalists
Director Sir: We, the journalists signed below, as correspondents
assigned to cover the Dialogues in San Andres Larrainzar, feel
obligated to make it known to the public that the large part of
the information being transmitted by the channels of Televisa and
Television Azteca falsifies substantially the facts regarding this
event. This distortion of the information does not correspond
with the principles of ethics and objectivity which should govern
our task. This concerns us because of the false ideas that many
Mexicans could develop regarding the developments in this event.
Attentively
(Foreign Reporters) Joaquin Ibarz, LA VANGUARDIA, Barcelona
Antonio Cano, EL PERIODICO, Espana Maria Jose Agejas, CADENA SER,
Espana Guiomar Rovira, EL MUNDO, Espana Ernesto Tomasini, RADIO
CITA DESCAPO, Italia Emiliano Thybaut, NSP, Francia Blanche
Petrich, LA JORNADA y LA OPINION, Los Angeles
(Wire Services) Eduardo Crage Lund, REUTER Dario Lopez Mill, AP
Heriberto Rodriguez, REUTER
(Mexican Reporters) Guido Lutrerio, AGIUT Liliana Nieto del Rio,
JB PICTURES Pablo Gonzalez Casanova H., CIHMECH-UNAM Carlos
Aviles, SEMANARIO ALLENDE Esperanza Rascon, SEMANARIO MOTIVOS
Miguel Badillo, EL FINANCIERO Juan Antonio Zuniga, LA JORNADA
Martin Salas, PROCESO Deborah Iturbe Vargas, RADIO LAGARTO Hermann
Bellinghausen, LA JORNADA Gloria Munoz, PUNTO Juan Anzaldo, RADIO
UNAM/CEACATL Raul Ortega, LA JORNADA Jesus Ramirez Cuevas, EL
TIEMPO-MOTIVOS Maya Santamarina, CIRDE Fernando Chamizo, RADIO
UNAM Roberto Cordoba Leyva, EL FINANCIERO Ricardo Deneke, ARGOS
Arturo Lomel Gonzalez, CANAL 6 DE JULIO Joaquin Palma, TV UNAM
Alejandro Mosqueda, CHILTAK A.C. Jose Luis Contreras Vargas y
Maria del Carmen Ortiz, COLECTIVO
PERFIL URBANO
Gilberto Lopez Chion, DIARIO DEL ISTMO Daniel Molina, SEMANARIO
CORRE LA VOZ Guillermo Castrejon, MEX NEWS Antonio Turok y Angeles
Torrejon, IMAGEN LATINA Maria Vazquez, REVISTA MIRA Gaspar
Morquecho, LA JORNADA y EXPRESSO Ruben Gozalez L. Carlos Martinez
S. Patricio Murphy Ruiz Ricardo Flores Manuel Arcadia
***************************************************************** ORDERS
OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR AND THE SCT TO LIE ANDSHUT DOWN
THE MEXICAN RADIO
POLITICAL ARCHIVE, Carlos Ramirez, El Financiero pg. 23, April 23,
1995
"Jesus Gonzales Schmall, distinguished former PAN member and
member of the Democratic Forum group, denounced it.
On Friday he was prevented from entering the studio of the Formula
radio station to do his daily commentary because he refused to
carry out the assignment given by the owner, Rogerio Azcarraga,
to attack and criticize Bishop Samuel Ruiz, whom the government
wants to make seem like he was the person responsible for the
mobilization of thousands of Zapatista indigenous into the
dialogue zone.
The instructions from the Secretary of the Interior, said Gonzales
Schmall who was told about them by Azcarraga, were to criticize
the National Commission of Mediation (CONAI) which is led by
Bishop Ruiz, which they want to make responsible for the
indigenous' mobilization. If it is true that all private radio
stations have the right to define how they are going to present
the information that they are going to transmit, in the way that
they judge as the best, then the basic point of the conflict is
again the two-sidedness of the government. If the government has
proof that Bishop Samuel Ruiz was playing with a rigged deck, then
the best thing would have been to denounce him. But by using
secret pressures and the manipulation of information, the Zedillo
government is showing its political unwillingness to conduct a
dignified negotiation for peace in Chiapas. And as the dialogue
should be carried out under the guises of the law, then the
Zedillo government could be accused of not fulfilling or of
violating a law. The dirty game against Bishop Samuel Ruiz is
more evidence of the zigzagging game of the Zedillo
government..."
LA JORNADA EDITORIAL Pg.2, April 23, 1995
Chiapas and the Electronic Media
"Clearly with the denouncement made public on last Friday, by the
former PAN leader Jesus Gonzales Schmall, with regard to the
Secretary of the Interior having given orders to radio stations
that they promote reports directed at criticizing the work of the
National Commission of Mediation in the process of the dialogue
between the Federal Government and the EZLN, we find ourselves
faced with an act capable of seriously eroding the right to freely
report which all communication media in the Republic should
have..."
Note Bene: The journalist Carlos Ramirez is one of the most read,
serious, and documented political columnists from Mexico.
Recently he has received death threats. The Mexican experience is
that said threats are almost always carried out. For this reason
solidarity with his work and profession is necessary and urgent.
Fax messages to El Financiero 011-525-255-1799 in Mexico City.
Posted by Karin <antigua@servidor.unam.mx>
Translated by Cindy Arnold, National Commission for Democracy in Mexico