Carmen Aristegui

Carmen Aristegui is a Mexican journalist born in Mexico City. She graduated from Mexico's Universidad Autónoma with a degree in communication sciences. She is the anchor of the news program "Aristegui" at CNN en Español.

Carmen Aristegui has almost 16 years of experience as an anchor and reporter on leading radio and television programs in Mexico.

In radio, she has participated in MVS's "Para Empezar" ("To Begin With") W Radio's "Hoy X Hoy" ("Nowadays") and Grupo Imagen's "Imagen Informativa" (Informative Image). On television, at MVS's "En Blanco y Negro" ("Black and White") and "Círculo Rojo" ("Red Circle") on Televisa, "Primer Plano" on Canal 11 and "Noticias Canal 52, with Javier Solórzano Zinser."

Carmen Aristegui is recognized as an expert on national politics. For over five years, Aristegui hosted the Federal Electoral Institute's special political programming. In 1997, she also acted as an advisor to a civic group involved in the first election for the head of government in the Mexican Republic's capital.

Aristegui has received the Mexican Press Club's "National Award" in 2001, 2002, and 2004, and in 2003 she was recognized as the "Best National Anchor" and presented with a Public Image Award. She was also named "2004 Woman of the Year" by Mont Blanc, and was selected to carry the Olympic Torch through Mexico as part of its global journey to Athens that same year. In 2005, Aristegui received recognition from the National Institute of Indigenous Languages for her promotion of the indigenous languages of Mexico.

Her daily morning news program was one of the most popular in Mexico, possibly because of her coverage of important issues such as media reform, abortion laws in Mexico City, and because of her willingness to interview leftist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In spite of her success, corporate interests began working against her when, firstly, Televisa's SKY took her show off the air due to "technical issues". Later on, W Radio refused to renew her contract because of their disaproval of her "editorial line".

The alleged reasons for her dismisal were met with scepticism by many observers, including El Universal's Jorge Zepeda Patterson and Reforma's Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa, who point out that both Televisa and Grupo Prisa (the latter being the employer of President Calderón's brother-in-law) were interested in being in good terms with the new president.

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/aristegui.carmen.html Carmen Aristegui profile] at CNN.com