(U-WIRE) STILLWATER, Okla. -- Censorship of La Catarina, a student-run newspaper at Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, has ended roughly two weeks ago after control of the newspaper was taken. The administration of the Mexican University, with whom Oklahoma State University has exchange programs, met with the Catarina editorial board Wednesday afternoon, Astrid Viveros, a Catarina reporter and columnist, said in an e-mail. Viveros said the University's chancellor, Pedro Palou, announced his decision to give the newspaper to the students, promising that the students would be allowed to print the newspaper as it was. For about the past two weeks, students have met with UDLA administration multiple times to discuss the future of the newspaper. On Jan. 17 at 5:30 p.m. the chief of communication sciences sent an e-mail to the editor in chief of the Catarina, which informed him La Catarina was going to be "reorganized," according to documents from the Catarina staff. Two hours after the e-mail was sent, four UDLA administrators and four campus police officers came to the Catarina office where about five Catarina staff members were spending time together, Viveros said in an e-mail sent Jan. 22 to The Daily O'Collegian. Viveros said in a phone interview that the students were told to remove their personal belongings. The students decided to take everything from the office with them, such as archives and photographs, Viveros said. The administration became more aggressive and shut off the Catarina office's electricity when some students went to back up their files on a USB flash drive, she said. "After that, it just became such a big mess because there were people crying," Viveros said. "There were people that were so mad because that was where we did everything. It was a project that was so close to our hearts." "Here in Mexico we don't get paid. We don't get extra credit. Sometimes we even took money out of our pockets to get the printing done so we get a better quality. We're just here because we love it," Viveros said. Jan. 17 marked the first Wednesday the weekly newspaper wasn't published since its beginning on March 5, 2000. Monica Cruz, La Catarina's chief of information, attended the meeting Wednesday with the administration. Cruz said she felt the University made the decision to end the censorship because of all the media attention, not only in Mexico, but also in the United States. About nine Puebla media outlets, two national Mexican newspapers and about five U.S. college newspapers covered the story, Cruz said. "I think this was the key factor for the administration to realize that it was a very important matter to discuss," Cruz said. "The Chancellor told the Catarina members in the meeting that the administration thought things were out of control and all of these happened because of a series of misunderstandings between the administration and La Catarina." Cruz said a member of the newspaper told Palou that if this meeting would have taken place a semester ago many incidents and misunderstanding would have been avoided, and Palou agreed. During the days when the Catarina was shut down, some feared talking with The Daily O'Collegian because of the UDLA code of ethics, which reads that no one is supposed to say negative things about UDLA to the media. As for the Catarina students being punished for talking with press, the chancellor tore the documents that listed the staff members‚ sanctions that were based on the code, Cruz said. Viveros said the staff wasn't given any exact reason why the Catarina staff was censored, but she thought it had something to do with political cartoons that ran in the Catarina last semester that depicted Chancellor Palou and criticized his involvement with Mario Marin, the Puebla governor who was thought to be involving jailing a journalist for a book she had written, Viveros said. "When we published that we never thought it would become so big," Viveros said. "I guess we were a little naive because we never thought it would offend or be such a big deal." In a news release, administration said La Catarina stopped publication for the December break. UDLA's administration decided to delay the 2007 publication until February in order to speak with the students and help reinstate the original purpose - a journalism project of the department of communication at which students could fulfill the 480 hours needed for the University's national Social Service obligation. Ricardo Chacón López Velarde, a lawyer in Mexico City, said in principle what the UDLA administration did is not illegal. "Being the owners, they can change management of the newspaper at their will," he said. "They can decide the line that the newspaper should follow. However, if there is strong evidence that there were certain censorship acts, it is possible to initiate some actions." Joey Senat, an associate professor in the OSU School of Journalism and Broadcasting, said even though the UDLA is a private university, the administration's actions still count as censorship. "It's censorship because it's authority shutting off the flow of information because they don't like it," Senat said. "It's censorship because it's … somebody in authority stopping someone else from speaking out."
Student newspaper in Mexico fights for freedom
Published: Monday, February 5, 2007
Updated: Saturday, November 14, 2009
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