Mexico is one of the countries with the highest media concentrations in the world, and it is difficult for small, independent entities to carve out a place for themselves. The telecom sector is dominated by the Telmex group, while broadcasting is controlled by Televisa and TV Azteca – which form a duopoly limiting diversity in the media landscape –  and the newspaper sector is essentially led by Organización Editorial Mexicana, which owns 70 Mexican daily newspapers, 24 radio stations and 43 websites. This situation limits the pluralism of the information available to the public and drives more and more independent journalists to post their work on social media.

The 2024 presidential election brought Claudia Sheinbaum to power with a wide margin of victory, succeeding President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was also from the Morena party. During the presidential campaign, Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) that she would adopt a series of measures that would strengthen protections for journalism and combat violence against the press. She has adopted a more discreet attitude and a less confrontational tone toward the media, although she does not hesitate to criticise media coverage on certain occasions.

Press freedom is guaranteed in the Mexican Constitution and further upheld in the Law Regarding Freedom of the Press of 1917. In practice, there are no overtly restrictive laws that curtail or censor press freedom, with censorship imposed with threats or direct attacks against the journalists rather than lawsuits, imprisonment, or rulings of suspension of activities.

Although it is the second largest economy in Latin America after Brazil, Mexico was hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and more than 2 million jobs were lost. For the most part, the media have also been badly hit and journalists have had to seek alternative sources of income while attempting to continue their freelance work. The sector has been particularly affected, notably due to the lack of a law guaranteeing the fair and transparent distribution of government advertising resources.

Mexico is a huge country that is structured around major population centres including Mexico City and at least seven other cities with more than a million inhabitants. The popularity of telenovelas has traditionally been the link between mass media and the sources of news and information for the general population. TV Azteca and Televisa, TV stations owned by families close to the government, are by far the biggest suppliers of both.

Collusion between officials and organized crime poses a grave threat to journalists’ safety and cripples the judicial system at all levels. Journalists who cover sensitive political stories or crime, especially at the local level, are warned, threatened and then often gunned down in cold blood. Others are abducted and never seen again, or they flee to other parts of the country or abroad as the only way to ensure their survival. Over 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000 and 28 have gone missing.