In Mexico, 181 journalists have been killed since 2000 in cases possibly linked to their work, while a small number of owners still control much of broadcasting and the newspaper business. Digital access keeps growing, but it hasn't broken the corporate grip on major media or ended threats to people reporting from the ground.
More people go online; ownership stays concentrated
In 2025, 86.1% of Mexicans aged six and over used the internet, or 104.9 million people, according to statistics office INEGI. The divide between city and countryside remained clear: internet use reached 88.9% in cities and 75.2% in rural areas. Among smartphone users, 80.4% accessed social networks and 90.6% used messaging apps.
INEGI's annual household technology survey, ENDUTIH, published in June 2026, found that 78.3% of households had internet in 2025, twice the 39.1% recorded in 2015. Mobile phones served 84.6% of people aged six and over. Free-to-air television reached 49.1% of the population, down 12 percentage points from 2020, and viewers watched an average of 2.1 hours a day. Streaming services were available in 36.4% of households.
That shift hasn't spread ownership across the old media empires. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says Televisa and TV Azteca dominate broadcasting and describes Mexico as one of the world's most concentrated media markets. Grupo Televisa now focuses mainly on pay-TV and broadband; at the end of 2025, it reported 15.5 million residential paid services and 3.8 million satellite ones.
TelevisaUnivision operates free-to-air channels including Las Estrellas, while also owning Univision, the TUDN sports brand and the ViX streaming service. Its Mexico-based news operation, N+, runs nmas.com.mx. The business crosses borders: in the second quarter of 2026, its U.S. advertising fell 29%, while World Cup demand lifted Mexican advertising 23% to US$353 million.
The cost lands on reporters
RSF counted eight journalists killed in Mexico in 2026 as of early October. On 9 October, gunmen killed Hamurabi Huesca Manzano, director of the news site Pinotepa Comunica, in Santiago Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca. Huesca also drove a taxi. Prosecutors said the attack presumably targeted a local crime figure.
The tolls differ according to how press-freedom groups count cases. Article 19 has documented 181 journalists killed since 2000 in possible connection with their work, including 14 under President Claudia Sheinbaum through July 2026. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in August 2026 that six journalists had been murdered that year; five killings came in just over two months, one of the deadliest spikes it had documented in more than a decade.
RSF says collusion between local officials and organized crime poses a grave threat to reporters and counts 28 journalists missing since 2000. It also says no law guarantees a fair, transparent distribution of government advertising, leaving small outlets exposed. The constitution guarantees press freedom, and RSF says Mexico has no openly restrictive press laws. Yet the group ranked the country 122nd of 180 in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 45.23 out of 100.
The regulator's rules—and its registry
President Claudia Sheinbaum, elected in 2024, regularly holds a televised morning press conference, the Mañanera del Pueblo, where reporters question her live. The event includes “El Detector de Mentiras,” a segment that rebuts reports the government calls false; the ministry concerned issues a denial. In May 2026, Sheinbaum announced the segment would expand into a weekly afternoon program, according to Infobae México. RSF says she has adopted a less confrontational tone toward the media while still criticizing coverage at times.
A new telecoms and broadcasting law published on 16 July 2025 created the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT), an administrative body under the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency. The law gives the commission technical and operational independence. President Sheinbaum named its chair, Norma Solano Rodríguez.
In August 2026, the CRT approved audience-rights rules, including separating news from opinion and answering viewer complaints. Solano rejected claims of censorship and said repeat offenders face fines of 0.1% to 1% of annual revenue. The commission also runs a mandatory registry linking each mobile line to its registered user. On 5 October 2026, it reported temporarily suspending 2,248,143 lines ending in the digit 3 that hadn't completed the process. How strictly the CRT will enforce its rules, and whether it will act independently of the government, remains unclear.
Meanwhile, RSF says independent journalists increasingly publish directly on social media, outside the large media groups. Animal Político presents itself as a source of verified information and independent journalism; Aristegui Noticias uses the slogan “journalism in freedom, from any medium.” Those routes exist beside concentrated ownership, government oversight and danger to reporters—not outside the pressures those systems place on the people who gather the news.