La Catarina and other censorship cases
Overview
La Catarina (ladybug in Spanish) was the student newspaper at University of the Americas (UDLA) in Puebla, Mexico. It was founded in February 2000 and it was first published in March 2000. The paper ran on Wednesdays and was distributed inside campus.
La Catarina was a community service project and a journalism laboratory. UDLA’s Department of Communication Sciences managed the paper, however, students were in charge of its content and administration. It is believed La Catarina was the only student newspaper in Mexico that was entirely done by students, for students and free from any university administrative, governmental or economical influence.
On Jan. 17, 2007, UDLA’s administration prevented the publication of the paper and dissolved its editorial board without the staff knowledge or consent. The administration told the students the paper was shut down because of its ”overly-critical content.”
After a large news spread on local, national and international media about the act of censorship, UDLA’s president let the students continue publishing and promised them UDLA’s officials would not restrain or threaten the publication ever again. He said La Catarina had absolute editorial freedom and independence.
In August 2007, the paper wasn’t shut down but usurped by the student government after the original staff refused to publish unless the administration gave student journalists and information sources a guarantee of free speech and press exercise without punishment or prior restraint.
La Catarina is now an institutional newspaper in which the interests of the administration and the student government are well kept within its content. The original staff of La Catarina has been implicitly criticized and devaluated in several editorials.
Read the thoughts and conclusions of three student journalists who worked at La Catarina.
These are links to news-stories about La Catarina’s censorship case written between Jan. 17, 2007 to Dec. 6, 2007.
December: Mass Firings at a University in Mexico Could Disrupt Its U.S. Ties, Chronicle of Higher Education
October: Crisis in Mexico: Profs claim mass firings at former study abroad spot, Stanford Daily (unavailable)
February: Mexican university newspaper returns to students, The Daily O’ Collegian, OSU
January: Stop the presses!, The Daily Skiff, TCU
Mexican partner college administration shuts down student newspaper, The Lamron, Geneseo
Students say Mexican paper was censored, The Harvard Crimson
Other censorship cases
Australia: Rabelais Magazine
Canada: The Cadre
Iran: Abed Tavancheh
Afghanistan: Sayed Pervez Kambaksh
