The relationship between the press and the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum has been characterized by the continuity of practices implemented during the previous administration. Sheinbaum shows a more moderate style of referring to the press than Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). At different times, the president expressed her opposition to exercising censorship actions, both because freedom of expression is the essence of democracy and because of her conviction that traditional media no longer influence public opinion.
Upon assuming the presidency in October 2024, Sheinbaum decided to maintain the morning press conferences, known as "las mañaneras," a practice initiated by her predecessor. However, she introduced adjustments to the format. He made them shorter and with new sessions, although he kept the weekly section on "lies" in the press under "Fake News Detector." In this space, to identify and refute erroneous information disseminated in the media and social networks, information is confused with opinion, and any criticism of the government is labeled as a "negative campaign."
With a moderate tone, he confronted journalist Raymundo Riva Palacio, who won a lawsuit against AMLO for attacks in the section "Who's Who in the Lies of the Week" in December, also, against The New York Times, which at the end of 2024 published reports on the production of fentanyl in México. The president refuted the content of those reports, but the newspaper backed its reporters.
At Sheinbaum's initiative, although following what was established by her predecessor in November 2024, the disappearance of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), which safeguarded in an autonomous body the information transparency of the three powers of the Union, was consummated. The federal government absorbed the agency, judge, and party from the information that the State must disclose. The disappearance of this body, together with the presidential attack on the Judiciary, is considered part of the weakening of democratic institutions.
The Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, under the Ministry of the Interior, continues to be inoperative in cases of murders of journalists, including those who had official protection. Impunity in the case of these murders remains above 95%.
It is worth mentioning that the precarious work in many cities in the country's interior forces communicators to look for additional work to improve their income. It is in the exercise of these jobs that they are murdered.
On October 29, 2024, journalist Mauricio Cruz Solís was murdered in Uruapan, Michoacán, who covered community information and issues of violence. Through its social networks, the digital media Minuto x Minuto Michoacán reported that Solís "died in an armed attack." The journalist also hosted the news program Enlace Informativo of the Radiorama station and was a reporter for the newspapers ABC and La Opinión, both in Michoacán. On January 8, 2025, the arrest of a person nicknamed 'el Sierra,' identified as the perpetrator of the journalist's murder, was reported. A week later, the authorities announced that they had identified another person responsible, but to date, he has not been found.
On January 17, 2025, Calletano de Jesús Guerrero, deputy director of Global México, was murdered. He was shot to death when he was in the parking lot of the atrium of the parish of San Antonio, located in the center of the municipality of Teoloyucan, in the State of México. The victim was in front of the church, where he was surprised by his assailants. The journalist had recently received threats at home and had already been granted security measures. On February 6, the arrest of the alleged killer was announced, who belongs to a local criminal group known as Los Abelardos. To date, the motive for the murder is unknown.
On January 24, journalist and professor Alejandro Gallegos León was murdered. He was found dead in a cornfield in the town of C-28, municipality of Cardenas, Tabasco. Gallegos León was a well-known journalist, founder of the news portal La Voz del Pueblo, and professor at the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT) and the educational institution Alfa y Omega. He also collaborated as a columnist in the newspaper Tabasco Hoy. Four days later, Governor Javier May confirmed the arrest of an alleged suspect in the murder. Abraham 'N' was identified as one of the alleged perpetrators of the murder, although the motive for the crime is not yet known.
On March 2, journalist Kristian Uriel Martínez Zavala, 28, was murdered in the municipality of Silao, Guanajuato, when he was traveling in a car with a companion. The local Security Secretariat reported that both were shot at. He was a reporter and administrator of news website Silaoense MX and worked as a DJ. In 2021, he was attacked with blows and threatened by men the reporter identified as close collaborators of the Morena party. That year, he received support from the preventive police and obtained protection measures from the state government between 2021 and 2022.
On October 18, 2024, armed subjects shot at the facade of the Sinaloa newspaper El Debate at least 12 times. Days later, a group of people kidnapped a deliveryman of the same newspaper. The subjects managed to catch up with him and throw him off his motorcycle. To date, he remains unaccounted for.
On December 11, the Judicial Power of Coahuila issued a judgment, which was later ratified in a second instance, against Grupo Periodístico Vanguardia, Coahuila, based on a non-existent debt.
On February 13, the local Morena deputy in the State of Puebla, Andres Villegas, proposed a bill to "protect freedom of expression," whose articles are ambiguous and, among other things, seek to punish those who "erroneously" criticize public officials. It intends that the state government safeguard the right of conscientious objection of journalists concerning the media for which they work.
At the end of February, Héctor Melesio Cuen Díaz, former director of Inventory Assets of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS), filed a lawsuit against Periódico Noroeste, in Culiacán, Sinaloa, for allegedly damaging his image by being cited in a corruption investigation carried out by the state Attorney General's Office. The lawsuit was classified as a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) since its purpose is to intimidate or inhibit information that makes facts of public interest visible. The aggrieved party demands compensation of "40 percent of the sales of the printed newspaper [...] in which his photos were published" between April 2023 and the same month of 2024.
On April 19th, the disappearance of Miguel Ángel Castillo was reported, who managed the Panuco Online page. Although Castillo at one point claimed pressure and apparently deleted all the information published on his page, neither authorities nor family have confirmed whether this is a forced disappearance, much less a possible motive. At the close of this report, search protocols had been activated.
