Texas' biggest daily newspaper, The Houston Chronicle, has just closed down its long-standing bureau in Mexico City. Brooke speaks to the former head of the bureau, Dudley Althaus, about what is lost when regional papers shut down their foreign bureaus, and the important relationship between Texas and Mexico.

Los Lobos - El Canelo

Ten years ago, Mexico passed some of the best freedom of information laws in the world. But while the laws are great on paper, their implementation has been problematic. Brooke travels to Mexico City to learn more about why Mexico's sunshine laws still struggle to illuminate information for the public.

Los Lobos - La Iguana

Brooke Gladstone and producer Sarah Abdurrahman are in Mexico and today Brooke took some time out from recording next week's show to speak with WNYC's Brian Lehrer.  Listen to a preview of what Brooke and OTM will be exploring next week on the show.

On Sunday, Sarah, Marianne and I followed a long march of tens of thousands of protestors through the streets of Mexico City to the Angel of Independence monument, gold and blazing in a stunningly intense sun. The protest itself was surprisingly upbeat - the mostly young people seemed exhilerated by their numbers and the freedom they felt to express anger in the streets.

One of my favorite features of Mexico City is the blank billboards. The ones for which no one has bought an ad. All that remains are quadrants of empty space, beautiful geometric shapes in shades of grey and beige that gain color from this city’s extraordinary evening skies.

Next week, On the Media is going into the field to report on foreign media at an important moment in history. In the past, OTM has traveled to Israel and the West Bank, Russia, China, and just last year to Cairo in the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution. This time, we are going somewhere a bit closer to home, but that  feels worlds away: Mexico.

This week, the Mexican Senate approved a constitutional amendment that would give the federal government jurisdiction over murders of journalists, taking over that responsibility from local officials who are often either ineffective, corrupt, or both. Brooke speaks with Eugenio Herrera, the General Counsel for Groupo Reforma, the largest newspaper publisher in Mexico about the amendment. 

In 2010, after another staff journalist had been killed by the drug cartels, the Ciudad Juarez newspaper El Diario published a front page editorial – it’s title was ‘What Do You Want From Us?”  Brooke spoke with El Diario editor Gerardo Rodriguez about his plaintive, angry and very public question for the cartels.

Oddisee - All Along the River

Last week the mutilated bodies of a man and a woman were found dangling from a pedestrian overpass in the Mexican boarder town of Nuevo Laredo, with notes explicitly warning that those posting the wrong things on the internet will share the same fate. As Drug cartels in Mexico turn their sights on blogs and twitter feeds, the mostly-anonymous social media may have an advantage that eludes mainstream journalism. Louis Nevaer of New America Media discusses the drug wars and the possibility of a newly empowered Mexican social body.