Carmen Aristegui Fired: Mexican Journalist, Team Let Go By MVS Radio Station After 'Mexicoleaks' Announcement

On March 10, during Carmen Aristegui’s morning show on MVS Radio, the journalist announced that her and her special investigations team ‘Primera Emisión MVS’ (which were responsible for the investigation of the ‘Casa Blanca’) would be participating with the new platform, Mexico Leaks. With this, they’d be joining other outlets like Emeequis, Periodistas de a Pie, Animal Político, Másde131, R3D y PODER, Proceso and even Aristegui’s informative blog, Aristegui Noticias. Similar to Wikileaks, the platform will be hosting leaks of interest for and from Mexicans, always protecting the identity of those providing the information.

The next day, MVS released a statement that failed to mention Aristegui’s name but was clearly condemning her actions: “Strategic alliances are only decided by the company’s administration, not by it’s collaborators. MVS Radio was never aware of any negotiations, encounters or potential alliances with any initiative or organization, which is why we regret and condemn the use of our brand ‘Noticias MVS’.” Aristegui claimed to be unaware of the company’s “campaign” and reserved her comments to, “let’s just se what this is about and where it’s coming from.”

Although the company sustained the conflict was exclusively about the brand’s name being used without the directives’ consent, but had nothing to do with Aristegui and her team. Despite this, hours later two members of Aristegui’s team were fired. One was reporter and journalist in charge of Aristegui’s Investigations Unit, Daniel Lizárraga and the other was reporter Irving Huerta. After this, Aristegui got to work with her lawyers and gave the company what was reported as an ultimatum, stating the conditions in which she’d be willing to see her contract with MVS through.

The conflict caused a media frenzy, starting with the hashtag #EnDefensadeAristegui (in Aristegui’s defense) which quickly became a trending topic; protesters gathered in the streets and communicators all over the country were outraged and expectant of the outcome. But despite all of this, the company decided to decline Aristegui’s conditions and released a statement that reflected MVS’ decision to let Carmen Aristegui go. Read full statement here.