Sheinbaum Rejects US Anti-Immigrant Spots on Mexican TV

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo expressed her disagreement with the airing of anti-immigrant spots from the United States government on Mexican broadcast television during soccer games and prime-time programming.

“We do not agree,” she stated, mentioning that in 2014, an article was eliminated during the administration of former President Enrique Peña Nieto regarding radio and television broadcasting concessionaires and permit holders in the country. This article stipulated that political, ideological, or commercial propaganda from foreign governments or entities should not be broadcast.

In her morning press conference this Monday, April 21, at the National Palace, Sheinbaum Pardo announced that the eliminated article will be reinstated: “It is part of the reforms that we are going to send today or tomorrow. They will be sent to Congress so that no foreign government, no entity of any foreign government can pay, because the issue is that they are paying to be able to broadcast these ads, this propaganda that has a discriminatory message.”

“Even so, this commercial, this paid advertisement, has been running in some media outlets for a few months. It became more noticeable because it was published during the last soccer game this weekend,” she commented.

In the Treasury Room, Sheinbaum Pardo read a letter from the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred), having received complaints about the broadcast of these spots on open television.

“This advertisement has highly discriminatory content,” stated the head of the federal executive branch.

She trusted that the letter sent by Conapred will raise awareness in the media and requested an investigation into how this article was removed.

“We are not in favor of censorship, never,” the President stated. “But it is very different when there is communication from a foreign government that contains content that Conapred itself considers discriminatory. So Conapred’s suggestion is to remove these spots and also amend the law that would no longer allow them to be promoted,” she added.