Former members of Mexico student movement join Televisa talk show

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MEXICO CITY -- They rallied and railed against the dominant media duopoly in Mexico during a crucial election campaign, but now former members of the student movement known as #YoSoy132 are set to appear on a new talk show produced by the Televisa network.

The revelation Wednesday startled observers and sparked outraged and mocking commentary on Twitter in Mexico, where #YoSoy132, or ‘I Am 132,’ was founded in May.

The leaderless movement emerged in protest of Enrique Peña Nieto, the presidential candidate who went on to win the July 1 election, and against Televisa and TV Azteca. Together, the media conglomerates nearly monopolize the airwaves in Mexico, making them a target of protests by #YoSoy132 for what it called the networks’ biased and favorable coverage of the candidate.

‘Sin Filtro,’ or ‘Without Filters,’ is slated to be a weekly Sunday night program on ForoTV, an arm of Televisa. The format is a round-table of university students who will discuss, ‘without censorship,’ the pressing issues facing Mexico, host Genaro Lozano said in an interview Wednesday.

Lozano, a 36-year-old international relations professor and frequent political commentator on Mexican news outlets, is not a former member of the student movement, but he helped moderate a presidential debate that #YoSoy132 organized. The unprecedented unofficial meeting with three of the four presidential candidates (Peña Nieto declined to attend) was noteworthy for being organized by citizens and not the federal electoral authorities.

The first installment of ‘Sin Filtro’ is expected to feature Antonio Attolini, a former #YoSoy132 campus representative and one of the most prominent and recognizable student voices during the election. Later, however, Attolini was effectively booted out of #YoSoy132 after other students regarded his many media appearances -- including on Televisa -- as detrimental and distracting to the group’s agenda.

Lozano said he understood the criticisms of the new program but added that he would make efforts to reach out to students from a range of public and private universities in Mexico for future on-air panels.

‘There is a phobia toward the networks, and that’s a historical issue in Mexico,’ Lozano told The Times. ‘But I think opening a new space of dialogue is always a good thing, and I hope other such spaces open up on other networks.’

He added that he previously had taped a pilot for a similar program on another network, but only within the last two weeks did a contact with the Televisa conglomerate lead to ‘Sin Filtro.’ Lozano said he expects to sign a contract for the show with Televisa on Thursday.

Online, the official Twitter account of #YoSoy132 distanced itself once more from Attolini, saying: ‘#YoSoy132 does not have leaders precisely to avoid that the contradictions of one affect us all.’ Other Twitter users were less generous, with some dubbing the student panelists who appear on a ‘Sin Filtro’ promo on YouTube as ‘traitors.’ (Links in Spanish.)

The promo itself is a study of what might arguably be called unintended irony.

Lozano identified the participants as all former members of #YoSoy132, now sitting before cameras belonging to the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world, which is also currently tied to a trafficking ring investigation in Nicaragua.

‘I’m tired of the fact that the old news media class gives us information in the same manner, and with bias,’ one panelist, a young woman wearing heavy-framed eyeglasses, emphatically declares. ‘That is bad for freedom of speech in the country and that’s why we’re here, to discuss what interests you, without filters.’

Attolini, meanwhile, broke his silence on Twitter on Wednesday as the virtual booing and hissing rained down on him. By the afternoon, he tweeted: ‘The struggle will be infinite if we don’t start gaining territory. Now we have it inside the wolf’s cave. Let’s say the things that are concealed.’

‘Sin Filtro’ is scheduled to premiere Sunday, Oct. 28. Lozano said the likely topic will be media democratization, a central issue for the student movement during the campaign.

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-- Daniel Hernandez