Mexico City, March 24 (teleSUR-RHC) The international radio network MVS Radio, released a public statement Monday saying that the company never asked Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui not to air a story connecting the Mexican president to the purchase of a house from a government contractor.
Aristegui, who was fired last week, said Sunday in an interview with the political magazine Proceso that there was a request from the company to not broadcast the story – which she had already published on her own website, Aristegui Noticias – on her 4-hour news show on MVS Radio.
"We categorically reject any kind of censorship by MVS" said to Reuters Jose Antonio Vega, director of MVS Radio News. Last year, Aristegui and her team revealed that Peña Nieto's wife, former Actress Angelica Rivero, purchased a luxurious mansion owned by a major government contractor, Grupo Higa.
The story, known in Mexico as "The White House" scandal, brought negative press from national and international media to the already beleaguered President. Subsequent reports revealed that the country’s Finance Minister Luis Videgaray, also bought a holiday home from Grupo Higa.
The company has said that Aristegui was sacked because she used the name of Noticias MVS when announcing the launch of the website Mexicoleaks, a new experiment in free speech created to share information to denounce and investigate official corruption.
Aristegui has invited the Vargas family, who owns MVS Communications, to sit down with her next Monday to discuss this situation and has offered to continue working with them to continue doing journalism. The journalist has also said that her dismissal could only have come with Peña Nieto's blessing.