Mexico: Protesters blockade Televisa studios in Mexico City

GlobalPost

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the studios of Televisa in Mexico City today, accusing the world’s most popular Spanish language television network of biased coverage of the July 1 presidential election.

Enrique Peña Nieto of the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century and became a symbol for corruption and electoral fraud, won the vote by nearly seven percentage points over leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

After a partial recount confirmed the result, Lopez Obrador filed a legal challenge, accusing Peña Nieto of paying Televisa for favorable coverage and buying votes – charges Peña Nieto has repeatedly denied.

The rally in Mexico City was organized by the student movement #Yosoy 132.

Protesters plan to blockade the Televisa office building for 24 hours, Proceso magazine reported.

Demonstrators chanted “Mexico without PRI” and “tell the truth” as they called for the “democratization of the ownership of all communications media,” Agence France-Presse reported.

Reuters reported that students and union workers were among the protesters. They stopped employees entering the building although they allowed others to leave.

The protest did not interrupt Televisa’s normal broadcast. The station claims it covered the election “fairly and gave time to all candidates on primetime news shows”, Reuters said.

More from GlobalPost: Coverage of Mexico's 2012 elections


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