The election of National Action Party (PAN) candidate Vicente
Fox to the presidency on July 2 ended the PRI's 71-year hold on
power, a period during which most media unabashedly supported
the regime. In an encouraging sign, the new government quickly
pledged that it would promote transparency of information and
respect freedom of expression and of the press. In addition, the
Fox administration promised that the Center for Information and
National Security, the government intelligence agency, would no
longer spy on journalists. (Under the PRI, the government
routinely spied on journalists while reacting with hostility to
the notion that its activities should be public.) Though many
media organizations, particularly TV and radio broadcasters,
were biased in favor of the PRI, the Mexican press played an
important role in the 2000 presidential elections. The press
greatly contributed to the transparency of the electoral process
by monitoring possible fraud and irregularities on election day,
as well as by announc