Title: Censorship in Mexico - Wikipedia
Headings: Censorship in Mexico
Censorship in Mexico
Contents
Attacks and threats against journalists
Historical Censorship
Before 1569
The Holy Office of the Inquisition and Book Censorship 1569-1820
19th Century
Further reading
Notes and references
Bibliography

Content: Although the structure of censorship had already begun to take shape with the arrival of Spaniards to Central America 50 years earlier, the Holy Office's subsequent dominance would go on to characterize the state of Mexican censorship from the 1570s up until the beginning of the 19th century. After Mexico gained its independence from Spain and disbanded the Office of the Inquisition (formally in 1812 but effectively by 1820) the censorship methodologies that had long distinguished Mexican censorship began to change. Censorship practices that had long been under the control of the Catholic Church were now under the discretion of a newly independent government that was forced to frame its actions through secular and legal channels rather than religious orthodoxy. As a result, censorship in the 19th century occurred in many forms dissimilar to those that came before it and was dominated by the constant struggle between journalists and government officials as to what constituted free speech. Issues of a free press remained salient throughout the Mexican Revolution and the following post-revolutionary rise of communist expression in the arts and journalism. The continued silencing of journalists and a state control of the media would continue through the latter part of the 20th century and remain as some of Mexico's most controversial issues today. Before 1569
Although there was no official Office of the Inquisition in New Spain until 1569, many practices of the Spanish Inquisition reached Mexico long before with the first evangelizing and missionary efforts of the Spanish Crown in Central America. Censorship prior to the establishment of the Holy Office of the Mexican Inquisition was in many ways similar to that which came after. Leaders of both periods maintained the aim of silencing individuals who spoke out against the Catholic Church or its practices and made their mission the institution of uniform spiritual and social order. Unique to this early period were censorship efforts that focused more directly on countering the heretical speech of groups that would later fall outside the jurisdiction of the Holy Office upon its codification in the 1570s.