{
  "id": 10417615,
  "title": "Mexico’s journalists have long faced bullets. Now lawsuits against them are rising",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/28/mexicos-journalists-have-long-faced-bullets-now-lawsuits-against-them",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-28T10:03:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Winnipeg Free Press",
    "slug": "winnipeg-free-press",
    "url": "https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/2026/09/28/mexicos-journalists-have-long-faced-bullets-now-lawsuits-against-them-are-rising"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Campeche, Mexico - In recent years, politicians and judges in Mexico have been stepping up efforts to suppress press freedoms, a development that has alarmed journalism watchdog groups. According to Article 19, a press freedom watchdog, journalists in Mexico filed a lawsuit or faced legal action every six days in 2025, nearly triple the number from the previous year.\n\nDuring the 2021 gubernatorial election, Layda Sansores, a member of the ruling Morena party, won the seat in the southeastern state of Campeche. Her victory marked a shift in the relationship between the government and the media. Sansores withdrew government advertising from the 50-year-old daily newspaper Tribuna, which was vital for the paper's operations. She also launched her own television program, praising her administration while disparaging journalists and awarding them with \"Golden Pinocchio\" prizes for perceived lies.\n\nAs Tribuna faced financial difficulties, it ceased print publication in 2024 but continued online. The paper's editor, Jorge Luis González, faced multiple criminal complaints from Sansores, accusing him of moral damage, gender-based political violence, and hate speech. In mid-2025, one of Sansores' criminal cases led to González's ban from journalism for two years and a judicial censor overseeing his newspaper's online articles.\n\nPress freedom watchdogs strongly condemned the decision, arguing that prior censorship is unacceptable and feared it might set a dangerous precedent. González immediately appealed the measures, which were temporarily suspended pending a final ruling.\n\nThe weaponization of the judicial system against the press is part of a broader trend seen worldwide. Reporters Without Borders has denounced the growing use of laws as weapons against the press, particularly in the Americas. In the United States, former President Donald Trump banned three news outlets' reporters from the White House, escalating his efforts through the courts and administrative action. Similar issues have arisen in Mexico, where journalist killings have surged, with seven journalists killed in 2025 alone, five of them within three months. Some journalists, like Veracruz crime reporter Rafael León, acknowledge that the legal battles have changed their work, causing them to work in fear.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "Journalists in Mexico filed a lawsuit or faced legal action every six days in 2025.",
    "Press freedom watchdogs condemned judicial censorship, fearing dangerous precedent."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}