Governor 'Cloned' Cancun Magazine to Create Fake Covers with Positive Stories David Agren - Committee to Protect Journalists
go to original September 25, 2014

The original cover, left, shows the governor under the headline Aimless but the fake cover, right, states Three Years of Delivering. (Articulo 19)

The Cancún-based investigative magazine Luces del Siglo has won a court decision ordering the Quintana Roo state government to stop "cloning" the covers of its weekly editions and spreading the fake versions via social networks, according to news reports.

The September 19 decision from a federal judge prohibits government personnel from taking covers with critical headlines and swapping the text and artwork for headlines more favorable to public officials. Governor Roberto Borge Ángulo was also ordered to declare to the court today if "the acts attributed to him are true or not."

"It means they have to stop defaming us as a media outlet," Norma Madero, owner and president of the privately owned Luces del Siglo, told CPJ after learning of the ruling on Monday. She had pursued the case with legal assistance from freedom of expression organization Article 19.



The original headline of Luces del Siglo, left, reads Crime Gaining Ground but the headline of the fake cover, right, reads No Truce With Crime. (Articulo 19)

The case comes as a setback to a state government at odds with independent media outlets and critical journalists writing investigative pieces, or daring to portray politicians in unflattering ways. It also highlights how political parties and politicians in Mexico are alleged to be influencing the spread of information on the Internet and via social media in ways that provide an incomplete or inaccurate picture, or silence critics.

Read the rest at CPJ.org

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