Politicians and judges are increasingly attempting to shut down press freedoms in Mexico, raising concerns among journalism watchdog groups.
In 2025, a new lawsuit against journalists or media outlets was filed every six days in Mexico, 69 cases in total, according to Article 19, a press freedom watchdog, triple the previous year.
Politicians have discovered that lawsuits are “a much more effective way to silence the press because they give the impression of legality,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Critics Once Silenced With Cash, Now With Lawsuits
Tribuna, a 50-year-old daily newspaper in the southeastern state of Campeche, became the flagship media outlet during the administrations of the Institutional Revolutionary Party which governed the state for nearly a century.
Then Layda Sansores, of the ruling Morena party, won the 2021 gubernatorial election. And things quickly changed.
She pulled government advertising from Tribuna — advertising that was necessary for the paper to continue to publish. She started her own television program
promoting her administration and demeaning journalists, handing out Oscar-style awards — called the “Golden Pinocchio” — to journalists she deemed the biggest “liars.”
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Tribuna ran columns railing against her, and those columns sometimes went beyond her politics. Criticism intensified with gender-specific and hom
ophobic attacks. Then in 2024, Tribuna, starved of revenue, ceased to print though it continued to publish online, including scathing articles against Sansores.
Sansores responded with several civil and criminal complaints against Jorge Luis González, who served as its editor for three decades and continues as a contributor, alleging moral damage, gender-based political violence and hate speech.
In mid-2025, one of Sansores’ criminal cases against González led judges to bar him from journalism for two years and to have a judicial censor review Tribuna article
s before online publication. Press freedom watchdogs strongly denounced the decision, arguing that prior censorship is unacceptable and concerned the decision might set a precedent.
González said he immediately appealed the measures and a judge temporarily suspended them pending a final ruling of the case.
Sansores has denied persecuting or censoring the press and says her lawsuits are to protect women. She did not respond to requests for comment.
Several local reporters say she also changed the way authorities try to control the press. Campeche officials now “stop you with lawsuits,” said Ronny Aguilar, a local journalist and digital content creator.
