The issue of professionalization of journalism and therefore of how to achieve professional standards has been of concern to journalists and to the general public for many years.1 In Latin America, one attempt at professionalization - the development of the colegio - has garnered some praise and has raised concerns about government control. Probably no issue in recent years concerning the Latin American press has aroused greater opposition or misunderstanding in the United States than the system whereby anyone must have a university degree in journalism and/or be a member of a colegio - a professional association - in order to practice journalism. Despite recent Supreme Court decisions in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica against obligatory licensing by their colegios of journalists, the institution is gaining headway in Latin America as a whole. Opponents maintain that the colegio system imperils freedom of the press. But others assert it raises professional standards and increases salaries. The author of this study notes that colegios frequently uphold freedom of expression under dictatorial or military regimes, and that opposition by publishers to colegios seems to be based on economic rather than “free press” grounds.
In the globalization of our economy, scant attention has been paid by scholars to the proliferation of English-language newspapers around the world designed to attract or protect American or British investments. This is a study of one such newspaper, the Mexican Herald (1895-1915), one of the early handmaidens of business that presaged the multinational corporations of today. Founded by an American, Frederick J. Guernsey, the Mexican Herald served an enclave of 25,000 American businessmen in Mexico City. The newspaper was dismayed by the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which threatened to wipe out foreign holdings. In particular, the Herald targeted Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian reform leader, for his unremitting attack on the large landowners and therefore private property in general. The Herald supported two reactionary regimes and sent a delegation to Washington, DC before being closed in 1915 by the Revolution which it never understood.
The press, playing a vital role in the 1910 revolution, later helped topple its hero. Thus an unsympathetic press can fell democracies as well as tyrannies.
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