On Wednesday, thousands of students marched through Mexico City in the latest round of demonstrations protesting Mexico's corporate media coverage of this year's elections. The protesters say Mexico's largest news conglomerate Televisa blatantly favors one candidate -- Enrique Pena Nieto.
The now frontrunner Nieto represents the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for 70 years, ending its reign in 2000, and is widely accused of vote rigging and violent crackdowns on protests during is rule.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of students, unions, and laborers marched through Mexico City protesting Nieto's potential victory, but say that Mexico's corporate media, specifically Televisa, covered the protests negatively, once again in favor of Nieto's rise.
Wednesday's march against media bias finished at Televisa's studios, where Pena Nieto was appearing on a live interview.
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Associated Press: 1000s of students protest media in Mexico
The students say newspapers and television stations are tilting their coverage toward Enrique Pena Nieto, who is leading polls by double digits ahead of the July 1 vote.
Many of the students were from the elite Iberoamerican University, where a May 11 appearance by Pena Nieto set off a rare wave of protests by young people against a return to the presidency of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 70 years before it was voted out in 2000.
The students say Mexico's largest television channel, Televisa, was particularly biased in its coverage of the rally and the campaign in general. Many finished the march at Televisa's studios, where Pena Nieto was appearing on a live interview show.
Local media reported smaller, simultaneous marches in at least a half-dozen other cities around Mexico.
A Televisa spokesman declined immediate comment, as did Pena Nieto's campaign.
"We want to be told the truth in this country," said Esteban Pacheco, an industrial design student at Iberoamerican. "I look at this as a wake-up call."
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Reuters: Youth protest former Mexican ruling party's rise
Thousands of demonstrators protested in Mexico City on Saturday against opposition presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, who is far ahead in polls and poised to lead the party that ruled Mexico for much of the 20th century back to power.
A contingent of mainly students, accompanied by groups of unionized workers and peasant farmers, held banners lambasting the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and its candidate, Pena Nieto.
"I have a brain, I won't vote for the PRI," one banner read.
Demonstrators also held signs accusing Pena Nieto of being unfairly favored by television companies and of having been corrupt and repressive as governor of Mexico State, a post he held from 2005 until 2011.
"I am not with any party, but I am sick of so much corruption," said Eduardo Nolasco, a 22-year-old student.
"We are fed up of so many lies and of the hypocrisy of Pena Nieto and the media," added Isabel Leyva, a 53 year-old house wife who was accompanied by her daughter, a student.
Police said there were more than 40,000 protesters at the demonstration.
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