MEXICO CITY - Two of Mexico's largest newspaper groups said Tuesday they have stopped running most of the sex ads that once blanketed the back pages of their popular tabloids.
The newspaper El Universal said in a front-page story that it and its tabloid El Grafico will not carry "ads that could be used by traffickers of people" to help combat what experts call a huge problem of exploitation of women and children in Mexico.
"We call on the journalistic community to close the door to criminals, not just in the commercial sphere, and not just in newspapers and magazines," said Juan Francisco Ealy, the executive president of El Universal.
The newspaper Reforma also said it had canceled the ads. Veronica Tapia of Grupo Reforma said the company's flagship broadsheet, Reforma, and its tabloid Metro would no longer accept sexual-service ads.
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Both companies' tabloid editions continued to run ads Tuesday for what appear to be sexually oriented phone chat services, but escort-style ads that once ran into the dozens had disappeared.
Neither paper specified what guidelines it was applying in the ban, and some other papers continued to run escort ads.
Such ads have drawn criticism from feminist and child welfare groups, which argue the advertisements provide wider markets for violent pimps and popularize paid sexual services or make them seem more socially acceptable.
Teresa Ulloa, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women and Children in Latin America and the Caribbean, said pimps have been known to run ads in newspapers in Mexico offering the services of women and even children who have been forced into prostitution.
