Broadcaster says it will 'continue demanding a public apology' over 'intimidating' allegations that it secretly campaigned for rightwing presidential candidate

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Mexico's television network Televisa has accused the Guardian of intimidation after fresh revelations about the company's links with the presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto caused an online furore in the runup to Sunday's election.

The world's biggest Spanish-language broadcaster said that the Guardian's report that it had set up a secretive unit to campaign for Peña Nieto were part of a defamation campaign.

Televisa's response came as renewed student-led protests against the network led to scuffles with rival demonstrators who supported Peña Nieto, who is the rightwing PRI party's candidate.

Separately, the Mexican magazine Proceso published new claims that a company linked to the network had backed the frontrunner's campaign with TV adverts.

The Guardian first reported on 7 June that documents from 2005 appeared to detail Televisa's sale of favourable coverage to several politicians, including Peña Nieto. On Tuesday it published documents that said a secretive unit codenamed "team Handcock" commissioned videos to promote the candidate and his PRI party, and rubbish rivals, in 2009. Within hours, the report was trending on Twitter and being picked up by blogs, radio stations and several Mexican newspapers.

A spokesman for the PRI denied the allegations and the network issued a swift rebuttal. "Grupo Televisa will not be intimidated by the Guardian and it will continue demanding a public apology given the multiple falsehoods contained in its articles," it said in a statement.

CNN's Spanish-language news service and influential news sites such as animalpolitico.com carried the story prominently but Televisa's news bulletins did not report the controversy – an example followed by several leading media organisations, which ignored or downplayed it.

"Televisa is Mexico's main source of news: it's understandable that the story didn't go mainstream because they didn't cover it," said Javier Garza, editor of El Siglo de Torreón, one of the newspapers that did report the story. "The reason some media outlets didn't… was perhaps because they already threw in their lot with Peña Nieto."

Daniel Moreno, a veteran journalist and editor of the news website Animal Político, said only a few publications such as the left-leaning daily La Jornada had followed up the Guardian's reports with their own digging.

"There are dailies which have published nothing, others which only published Televisa's reply, and others which, without explanation, delayed publishing the information."

Partly it could be because the allegations suggested impropriety but not necessarily illegality and partly due to legitimate reservations over the information's veracity, he said.

A third reason was "concern" that disseminating such information could affect ties with the presumed winner of Sunday's election, who will rule for the next six years. "The government, it's worth remembering, is the principal (advertising) client of most media organisations."

Polls on Wednesday – the last day of official campaigning – gave the PRI candidate a 7-10 point lead over his nearest rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left-wing PRD. A Peña Nieto victory would hand the presidential mansion back to a party that ruled for 71 years until 2000 when it lost power amid the strengthening of multi-party democracy.

Members of YoSoy132, a student-led movement that has mobilised months of protests against what it calls Televisa's bias, held a rally outside the network's headquarters in Mexico City. They launched a Twitter "SOS" for artists and journalists to focus on Mexico's election.

Students in Morelia, in the state of Michoacán, held up effigies of dinosaurs – a reference to the PRI's old guard – and chanted slogans in advance of a visit by Peña Nieto.

They traded insults and chants with PRI supporters, some of whom reportedly picked up rocks. There were kicks and punches, but no injuries were reported.

The news site Aristegui Noticias on Wednesday identified and displayed campaign videos that a Televisa subsidiary, Comercio Mas, allegedly commissioned for Peña Nieto in 2009. This was a central part of the Guardian's report on Tuesday. Some of the videos were taken down from a video website last week after the Guardian had put the allegations to Televisa and the PRI.

Aristegui Noticias said it had retrieved the videos after an extensive online search. It described them as "key pieces in the dark jigsaw" of relations between the television network and Mexico's likely next president.

Another Mexican news site, Sin Embargo, compared the spate of reports about Televisa to a John Grisham thriller and complained that the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which regulates elections, had not "raised a finger" in response.

"It has not even dared comment on or review the allegations about the supposed abuses … it appears even less disposed to impose fines or sanctions," Sin Embargo said.