Мария Арристеги: Журналист и голос критики в Мексике

Mexican journalist

María del Carmen Aristegui Flores (ˈkaɾ. men a.ɾisˈte.ɣi; born January 18, 1964) is a Mexican journalist and anchorwoman. She is widely regarded as one of Mexico's leading journalists and opinion leaders, and is best known for her critical investigations of the Mexican government. She is the anchor of the news program Aristegui on CNN en Español, and writes regularly for the opinion section of the periodical Reforma. In March 2015, she was illegally fired from MVS Radio 102.5 FM in Mexico City following a report on the conflict of interests by then Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, with a state contractor who would have built a millionaire residence for the president and his family. She manages her own news website and hosts an online morning newscast, which is also broadcast on Grupo Radio Centro's XERC FM.

Aristegui was born on 18 January 1964 in Mexico City, the fifth of seven children. Her father was a Basque Spaniard who had immigrated to Mexico when he was a child as a refugee in the wake of the Spanish Civil War and her mother was of Spanish and French heritage. She has said that it was because of her family background that she has dedicated her life to journalism. Aristegui grew up in the Colonia Álamos, a neighbourhood in the Benito Juárez division in the south central part of Mexico City. She attended primary school at the Escuela Primaria Estado De Chiapas, and attended secondary school at Club de Leones de la Ciudad de México. Her first job, at age 17, was with an accounting firm, Ayala and Associates. where she initially studied sociology and then switched to communication sciences. In an act of solidarity, the hosts of the later broadcasts of Imagen Informativa, Ilana Sod, Julio Boltvinik, Denise Dresser, and Vivian Hiriart also quit.

Aristegui hosted the program Hoy por Hoy ("Nowadays") on W Radio until 4 January 2008, when, after several months that had been marked by increased tensions between herself and her employers about the extent to which she should be allowed to express certain opinions, she parted ways with the network, citing differences over its planned changes in editorial direction. "Early in December 2007," Aristegui said, "I was informed of the network's desire not to renew my contract, but they left open the possibility of staying on. The network notified me that they sought to change the contractual conditions in some respects, incorporating some changes in editorial direction We discussed it and looked forward to specific proposals, but in the end it didn't happen." In her final broadcast, she said that she had been surprised by the news of her termination. The split coincided with the March 2007 appointment of Daniel Moreno, who was close to the wife of Zavala and former president Vicente Fox's wife Marta Sahagún, as director of W. Though Hoy por Hoy had attained its highest audience levels ever with Aristegui at the helm, beginning in 2007, Aristegui was conspicuously omitted from the list of electronic journalists who were granted interviews with the Mexican president. On 5 January 2008, La Jornada reported that after the show's final broadcast, Aristegui received applause from station workers, lasting for several minutes. Hosts of the stations Ke Buena, Los 40 Principales and Bésame Mucho, which broadcast from the same building, also gathered there to applaud the journalist's work. Outside, listeners gathered spontaneously to protest Aristegui's firing, some of them carrying signs reading "Long live our right to information! ", "We will not be silenced! Long live our freedom of expression!" and "Carmen, we are with you, because Mexico needs valiant and principled journalists like you." Voces Silenciadas ("Silenced Voices"), a 2009 documentary by Maria del Carmen De Lara about the persecution of journalists in Mexico and the relationship between the Mexican media and politicians, used Aristegui's departure from W Radio as its starting point. De Lara stated publicly that the Aristegui case showed how concentrated media ownership in Mexico had narrowed the range of permissible opinions in Mexico's media.

MVS Radio and Aristegui reached an agreement in early 2009 to begin a new radio show on Noticias MVS. The daily show, which began airing in January 2009, dealt with issues in much greater depth than her twenty minute TV show for CNN. On 6 July 2009 (the day of the 2009 midterm elections) the program also began broadcasting on channel 52MX, which also belongs to MVS. Guests on this program included various Mexican political figures, such as Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Roberto Madrazo Pintado. The show featured an interview with former president Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado in which he expressed disappointment in his successor, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, because of the latter's family corruption and links to drug cartels.

On 4 February 2011, on her MVS program, Aristegui reported an incident that had occurred on the previous day in the Chamber of Deputies. Opposition deputies had displayed a banner reading: "Would you let a drunk drive your car? No, right? So why let one run your country?" Aristegui commented on her news program that while she didn't "have any specific information" as to whether the president had problems with alcohol, she added "this is a delicate topic" and suggested that President Calderón had an obligation to reply to the charge. On 7 February MVS, citing Aristegui's comments, terminated her contract purportedly "for violating the ethical code" of the firm. "In our code of ethics," MVS said in a statement, "we pledge to reject the presentation and dissemination of rumors as news. The journalist Carmen Aristegui violated our code of ethics and we decided to terminate our existing contractual relationship." The termination resulted in widespread public protests, and Aristegui was reinstated a few days later. Neither she nor MVS Radio issued an official statement about her return to the air. A CNN report in August 2012, revealed the behind the scenes story of the firing and rehiring. On 4 February, shortly after Aristegui's on air comments about President's Calderón's possible alcoholism, MVS president Joaquin Vargas received a phone call from Calderón's spokeswoman, Alejandra Sota. Vargas apologized for Aristegui's comment, and later that day was told by a cabinet official that the government would not be taking action on a matter involving MVS's broadcast frequencies until Aristegui herself offered a public apology. On 5 February, Sota handed Vargas a statement of apology and told him to instruct Aristegui to read it on the air. On 6 February, Aristegui refused; Vargas fired her immediately. Her termination was announced that evening, and within hours Sota phoned Vargas and told him she was alarmed by the intense reaction on social networks to the news of Aristegui's dismissal. After several days of public outcry and of extensive communication between Vargas and various representatives of Calderón, Aristegui returned to the air on February 21.

On 12 March 2015, two journalists from MVS, Daniel Lizárraga and Irving Huerta, were fired after they used the station's brand name without permission in a newly created website known as MexicoLeaks, which leaked reports on government corruption. Aristegui issued an ultimatum and threaten to quit if MVS did not reinstate her two staff members. Four days later, MVS fired Aristegui after considering that she had crossed the line for issuing an ultimatum to the MVS management. Because the two journalists fired were part of an investigatory group that revealed the "white house scandal", a presidential scandal that involved the First Lady buying a house from a government contractor, many outlets commented on a possible conflict of interest. Both the Mexican government and MVS, however, stated that Aristegui's departure was due to internal disagreements between her and the MVS management. Aristegui said that she had plans to pursue legal action against MVS. Thousands of people gathered outside the MVS installations that day asking for Aristegui's reinstatement and criticizing MVS for firing her. On March 17, two more journalists from MVS, Ame Motta and Adriana Buentello, were fired after the management decided to cut personnel. On social media, the two journalists expressed their doubts about MVS's rationale and claimed it was due to them backing Aristegui. On 21 June 2018, a federal court ruled that the 2015 dismissal of Carmen Aristegui from the MVS radio group was "illegal and improper". She explained that she had written the book in order to offer readers "a very interesting overview and X ray of the country" and to provide insights into the ways the candidates had resolved specific situations in the past, which might offer clues as to how they would behave in office.

Aristegui has one son, Emilio, born on 11 February 1999. "The emotion that came over me continues to be unforgettable," she said of his birth in an interview some years later.