MEXICO CITY. - The Mexican network Televisa and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) today rejected the content of an article in the British newspaper The Guardian that talks about the alleged sale of television coverage by the broadcasting company in favor of the presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto from that political party.

In a statement, Televisa said that the article titled "computer files linking dirty TV deals to Mexico's Presidential front-runner", signed by correspondent Jo Tuckman, admits that "it has not been possible to confirm the authenticity of the documents".

The broadcasting company pointed out that the documents on which the report is based on, were not shown to Televisa, "so we could not give an opinion about something we do not know." Televisa also stressed that the reporter did not share the files in question with her readers.

"The lack of journalistic rigor with which it was written, is shown in that article on which the reporter uses the word 'apparently' eight times, but it does not appear in the title. All are 'appearances'" Televisa explained.

The broadcasting company said Tuckman recognizes that this is the same data presented in 2005 by Jenaro Villamil in the Proceso magazine, "which have been repeatedly denied and disclaimed by the party for over seven years.

"Televisa laments that reporter Jo Tuckman was caught with apocryphal material that has been repeatedly published and denied," the company stated, and added that they appealed to the British newspaper officials "to conduct a thorough investigation and offer a public apology" to the company.

Meanwhile, David Lopez Gutierrez, media coordinator for the campaign of the PRI party presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, said in a statement that the political group is unaware of the documents referred to in the Article published on Thursday by The Guardian.

He added that during the Peña administration as governor of the State of Mexico (2005-2011) there was not any contract of the kind referred to in the newspaper, and that "all contracts to report government activities, as well as their costs, were transparent and are available on the Transparency Website of the State of Mexico Government.

According to the report, documents that the newspaper had access to, "seem to show" that Televisa sold to prominent politicians favorable TV coverage in its news and entertainment programs, and used those same TV spaces to denigrate the presidential candidate for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

"The documents, which consist of dozens of computer files, arise just weeks before the presidential elections on July 1st, and coincide with the appearance of a strong protest movement accusing Televisa of manipulating its coverage in favor of the leading candidate Enrique Peña Nieto" said the article.