墨西哥：媒体巨头与人民的政治战（节选）

    7月7日，约10万民众沿着墨西哥城主干道改革大道游行，并来到市中心广场，在150英尺高的独立天使纪念碑前举行抗议集会。人们高呼：“公民们，听着！这是你们的战争！”一份抗议海报上写着：“治理国家不是拍电视。”虽然墨西哥大选已经落幕，但自从7月1日计票之后的几周，示威者便开始走上街头进行抗议。他们对恩里克•培尼亚•涅托获得大选胜利愤怒不已，这位极端但却非常上镜的候选人在竞选中只喊出了一些“你们将得到更多！”之类的简单口号。

    游行队伍经过墨西哥城市中心标志性的Museo de Bellas Artes博物馆时，大学刚毕业的卡洛琳娜•雷耶斯解释说：“我认为，培尼亚•涅托在媒体宣传方面存在舞弊行为。”她画了一个电视机屏幕，上面是修改过的Televisa公司标识，在上面涂的是代表培尼亚•涅托所在政党的红色、白色与绿色。该政党是一架在墨西哥具有悠久历史和曲折经历的政治机器。从标识中央的裂缝中，一只暴龙的头伸了出来，警告人们陈旧腐败的政治“暴龙”重新掌握了权力。卡洛琳娜周围的人群高呼：“舞弊！舞弊！舞弊！”，围观的人群纷纷用手机拍摄她将电视道具高高举过头顶的画面。大部分抗议者都是左翼候选人安德烈斯•曼纽尔•洛佩兹•奥夫拉多尔（AMLO）的支持者，墨西哥最大的传媒公司Televisa对该国政治话语权的影响力令他们感到非常失望。他们不希望看到，墨西哥大选完全按照Televisa的脚本进行。

    墨西哥许多接受过教育、并且擅长使用高科技的城市年轻人，在Youtube和Twitter上关注着墨西哥大选的整个过程，并表达了对大选的不满。他们认为，Televisa的规模太过庞大，或许对墨西哥没有好处。电视业巨头Televisa制作了许多在墨西哥大受欢迎的肥皂剧。Televisa控制着墨西哥广播电视市场70%的份额，该公司的节目覆盖了墨西哥95%的家庭。有线电视或者互联网等平台可以为用户提供海量的选择，而墨西哥的广播电视网络的观众却无从选择。观众们认为平台上播放的新闻报道带有政治倾向性，令人非常失望。尤其是在有线电视和互联网普及有限的墨西哥，广播电视至关重要。目前，墨西哥仅有两家全国性广播电视频带。墨西哥城著名调查机构CIDE的政治经济学教授贾维尔•阿帕里西奥解释道，他“主要担心墨西哥媒体行业过度集中，”他补充说：“Televisa对墨西哥选举的影响非常显著。”

    年轻一代政治抗议者（以及Televisa股东）当下关注的问题是，墨西哥下一届政府会如何处理Televisa的市场支配地位和影响力。2012年选举周期内，Tleevisa的新闻报道引起公众强烈不满，可能促使墨西哥政府授权其他公司建立新的电视网络，进而增加电视新闻领域的竞争。美国智囊机构外交关系委员会（Council on Foreign Relations）的墨西哥专家莎伦•奥尼尔认为，在竞选过程中，培尼亚•涅托和他的顾问团队曾经保证，将开放墨西哥较为集中的经济部门，其中最为显著的就是电视行业。培尼亚曾承诺，若抗议与示威活动继续下去，他将提高多个经济部门的竞争。他所领导的政府甚至可能被迫瓦解Televisa对广播电视市场的垄断地位。若发生这种情况，Televisa将失去很大一部分广播广告收入。目前，墨西哥公司的广播广告开支为28亿美元。于是Televisa决定赌一把，希望帮助培尼亚•涅托获胜之后，他领导的政府不会拿Televisa在广播电视行业的垄断地位开刀。阿帕里西奥解释道：“他们希望保住其市场份额，不希望政府批准成立新电视台。”Televisa的赌注能否得到回报？目前，整个墨西哥都在翘首以待。

    Televisa发现，支持培尼亚•涅托让自己陷入了一场激烈的公开辩论。而辩论的对象便是培尼亚•涅托所在的革命制度党（Institutional Revolutionary Party或PRI），以及该政党与由其帮助建立的商业寡头之间长久以来的关系。毕竟，培尼亚•涅托的胜利代表革命制度党重返政治核心。革命制度党以镇压异议而著名，在墨西哥成立了大批垄断企业，并在二十世纪后半叶确立了墨西哥的现代经济格局。在此期间，Televisa公司现任CEO的父亲艾米里奥•阿兹卡拉贾对于公司与执政党的密切关系，毫不避讳。他甚至曾经称自己是“革命制度党的忠诚卫士。”

    On July 7, nearly 100,000 people forced their way down Reforma,one of Mexico City's main avenues, gathering in front of the Angel of Independence, a 150-foot-tall monumentin a plaza in the city center. "People, Listen! This is your fight!" they chanted. "Governing a country is not [the same as] making a telenovela," one of the protest posters announced. Mexico's election is over, but in the weeks following the July 1 ballot count, demonstrators have takento the streets. They are angry about the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto, a polarizing but telegenic candidate who ran a campaign based on simple slogans such as "You'll Earn More!"

    As the demonstration passed by Museo de Bellas Artes, an iconic museum in downtown Mexico City, Carolina Reyes, a recent college graduate, explained "I think there was fraud in the promotion [of Peña Nieto] in the media." She had painted the front of a model TV screen to show a modified version of the Televisa logo, re-done in the red, white, and green colors of Peña Nieto's party, a political machine with a long and checkered history in Mexico. A plastic tyrannosaurus rex toy poked its head out through a rip in the center of the logo, a warning about the return of old, corrupt, political "dinosaurs" to power. "Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!" the crowd around Carolina chanted, as onlookers stopped to use their cell phones to snap photos as she held her TV prop over her head. The protesters, the majority of whom supported Andres Manuel Lopez Obredor (AMLO), a leftist candidate, are frustrated with the influence of Televisa (TV), Mexico's most important media company, in their country's political discourse. They don't want to see Televisa write the script for their country's elections.

    Many members of Mexico's urban, educated, tech savvy youth, who watched and criticized the campaigns via Youtube and Twitter, think that Televisa, a TV conglomerate that produces many of the country's most popular telenovelas, may be too big for the country's good.Televisa controls 70% of the broadcast television market, and its broadcasts reach 95% of all homes in Mexico. Unlike cable TV or the Internet -- platforms that offer a plethora of options -- viewers frustrated with the perceived political slant of news coverage on Mexico's broadcast TV networks have few alternatives. Especially in Mexico, a country with limited cable and Internet penetration, broadcast TV plays a central role. Right now the country has only two nationally broadcast TV channels. Javier Aparicio, a political economy professor at CIDE, a prestigious research institute in Mexico City, explained that his "main concern is the concentration of the media industry in Mexico." He added, "Televisa has an important influence in campaigns in national elections."

    The question for the new generation of political protesters (as well as Televisa shareholders) is what Mexico's next government will do about Televisa's dominant position and influence. Public discontent with Televisa's news broadcasts in the 2012 election cycle could push Mexico's government to increase competition in TV news by granting another company a license to start a new network. Shannon O'Neil, a Mexico expert from the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank, explained that Peña Nieto and his advisors "talked at times on the campaign trail about opening up the concentrated economic sectors in the economy -- televised media being one of the most prominent examples." Peña Nieto has promised to boost competition in many sectors of the economy if the protests and public demonstrations continue. His government may also face pressure to break up Televisa's hold on the broadcast TV market. If this happens, Televisa could lose a sizable chunk of its share of the $2.8 billion that companies in the country spend on broadcast advertising. Televisa gambled that in helping Peña Nieto win, it could discourage his administration from breaking its hold on the broadcast television sector. "They want to maintain their market share, they don't want new TV stations approved," Aparicio explained. Mexico is now waiting to see if Televisa's bet will pay off.

    In supporting Peña Nieto, Televisa has found itself pulled into a critical public debate in Mexico about Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and its longstanding ties to the country's business oligopoly, an elite group it helped create. After all, Peña Nieto's victory marks the return of the PRI, a political organization that earned a reputation for stifling dissent and helping to create monopolies and form Mexico's modern economy during the second half of the twentieth century. During those years, Emilio Azcarraga, the father of the company's current CEO never hesitated to explain his close relationship with the ruling party. He once called himself a "soldier of the PRI."