The annual Christmas binge on publicity by Mexico's federal bodies weakens public services and media independence

Newly accessible public spending data reveal that Mexico’s federal bodies tend to spend on communications, publicity, and advertising in a highly irregular manner, with a huge skew towards the end of the year, and especially a “Christmas binge” in December. For the state, this extreme form of the “spend it or lose it” approach encourages lower-quality spending and hampers due diligence in procurement. Meanwhile, specific and sometimes vulnerable populations are left worse informed and protected than they could be, and proper journalistic scrutiny of government is disincentivised by media dependence on last-minute state publicity splurges, write Joseph Brandim Howson (University of Cambridge) and David Jáuregui.