11 Mar 2011 | Americas, Mexico
The scandal caused by the banning of the documentary Presunto Culpable Presumed Guilty has given a shot of life to Mexicans. On Wednesday, after a legal battle of several days, the film was again allowed to be shown to the public.
The Sixth Collegiate Tribunal for Administrative Matters dictated that to stop showing the film caused “serious offence to society” and went against the public order. The legal demand was also used by the film producers to suggest to Mexico City that it open tribunals to cameras. The challenge was taken up by media conscious Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who said his government is studying ways in which cameras can be installed in Mexico City tribunals.
Mexico City is in the process of modifying its judicial system, introducing oral trials. Future criminal procedures will be conducted in oral trials without a jury, but open to the public. This change will make prosecutors,
defense attorneys, and judges more accountable and the system more transparent. Currently the trials are supposed to be public, but the real trial is actually conducted — in advance of the formal judicial proceedings — by the prosecutor.
Edgar San Juan, producer and writer of the Presumed Guilty, said the only thing that was gained with the censoring of the film was a shot of money to pirates, who made and sold thousands of copies of the film on the streets of Mexican cities.
The film focuses on the trial of an innocent man who is framed by police and investigators and charged with a murder he did not commit. While the film depicts the system in Mexico City, it has touched a chord among Mexican audiences because it proved something that every citizen in Mexico suspects of its judicial system. This was the first time that filmmakers were allowed inside a tribunal. The film was banned because the main witness potrayed in the film said it had violated his privacy.
4 Mar 2011 | Americas, Mexico
A Mexican judge has ordered a temporary ban of Presunto Culpable, Presumed Guilty, an independent documentary that depicts the faults in public justice procurement in Mexico. The film (view trailer here)had been released to considerable acclaim and was one of the most viewed films last week in Mexico. The story line focuses on an innocent man arrested by Mexican police for a murder he did not commit, and shows how the system is set up to beef up fake cases against innocent people.
The reasons for the temporary ban is that Victor Daniel Reyes Bravo, one of the persons included in scenes in the documentary, said he never gave his permission to the filmmakers. The documentary producers say that according to Mexican law, court hearings are public.
The ban was ordered by a federal judge because Victor Daniel Reyes Bravo said the documentary “has caused him great moral damage”. Reyes Bravo is the witness who apparently encouraged by corrupt policemen, testifies in the trial that Jose Antonio Zuñiga killed a man.
Immediately after the announcement of the provisional ban, users of Twitter and Facebook exploded in a barrage of criticism, with others showing websites where viewers could download the picture in Freakshare.com.
The film won first place for documentaries at the London East End Festival
http://www.presuntoculpable.org/
25 Feb 2011 | Americas, Mexico
Carmen Aristegui, the radio broadcaster who was forced off the air recently, hit the wave lengths again this week after MVS, the Mexican radio station that had kicked her out of her early morning spot agreed to put her back.
Aristegui had been fired following controversial comments that speculated whether President Felipe Calderon was a drunk. Her dismissal unleashed an unprecedented campaign by radio listeners and other supporters who claimed that President Calderon had demanded her head. The debate simmered as it became public that MVS was in the throes of applying for a concession of a WiMax technology, which would allow it to enter the new business of fixed and mobile telephones and TV.
The debate quickly settled on the reputation of the journalist. Ricardo Trotti of the Inter American Press Association, an organisation that monitors abuses against the press and represents newspaper owners, said Aristegui did not spread a rumor, but made an interpretation of an event that occurred in the Mexican Congress, where a congressman brought a banner that read “Would you let a drunk drive your car? No? Then why do you let him lead the country?
But Marco Lara Klhar, another columnist said that while the forced dismissal of Aristegui was not correct, she had violated journalistic ethics by spreading a rumour.
Klhar goes back and reveals that the first time the rumor about President Calderon´s alcoholim goes back to a political ploy by a journalist who was angry after the 2006 presidential elections where the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, PRD, lost by a small number of votes. The PRD challenged the results and has never accepted it lost the elections. Federico Arreola, the reporter, started the rumor, to get back at President Felipe Calderon, he recalled recently.
Now admitting that there is no evidence to prove that the president is a drunkard, Arreola says there is enough to be an “illegal” president because he did not win the 2006 elections.
Aristegui returned to her news program saying that the right to be critical in Mexico had been protected and she thanked her public for supporting her during the crisis. Aristegui is a controversial figure, but a well-respected analyst and broadcaster who often tackles issues other reporters ignore.
16 Feb 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Mexican radio station MVS has reinstated Carmen Aristegui, the journalist fired last week after speculating about President Felipe Calderon’s alleged drinking problem. The dismissal provoked widespread debate about freedom of expression in Mexico. MVS’s decision to rehire her was based on discussions with Aristegui – as well as public discussion about her radio show, the station said.
