President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's criticism of the press contributes to a “climate of decomposition” and violence in a country that has eight journalists killed so far this year, as the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) considered this Tuesday.
“In three years, Article 19 has counted 1,945 attacks on the press by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as 30 murders of journalists and two disappearances. And from December 2018 to 2021, since the Presidency, attacks on journalists increased 85%,” says the report on Mexico, which is still pending approval at the organization's half-year meeting, which begins this Tuesday.
The organization recalled that the main non-governmental associations in the world agree on the degree of danger that exists in Mexico to practice the profession.
In addition, he said that all journalists killed in 2022 were in “areas of the Mexican province” and most had a history of threats and requests for protection.
According to data collected by the NGO Article 19 and cited in the report, López Obrador has issued 1,945 attacks on the press since his administration began in December 2018, a period in which at least 30 journalists were killed and two are disappeared.
“And from December 2018 to 2021, since the Presidency, attacks on journalists increased 85%,” the report details.
Due to the attacks on the press and the murdered professionals, journalists from all over the country have held protests of various kinds in recent months demanding the clarification of the facts, but also the cessation of the “expressions of stigmatization” uttered by the Presidency.
However, the president, according to the IAPA, “has minimized these demands”, insists that the numbers of violence in Mexico have fallen and assures that the media try to damage his image with his criticism.
In addition, López Obrador has repeatedly accused journalists of being part of a “business conspiracy to affect their government”.
An example of this is the space in his daily press conference “Who is who in the lies”, where he criticizes non-related media and claims that the media attack him “with falsehoods”.
The IAPA reports that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) asked the president to delete this section, but he has not done so.
“It is in this environment of decomposition that hundreds of attacks by criminals and members of organized crime have been recorded, in order to inhibit the work of information,” the report links.
Last March, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights warned about “the normalization and deepening of violence against journalists in Mexico.”
Through a press release, the IACHR urged the authorities to take measures to safeguard the lives of journalists, in addition to fighting impunity for crimes against the press.
“The Rapporteurship notes with particular concern the escalation of violence against journalists in Mexico, and reiterates that such attacks violate freedom of expression in both its individual and collective dimensions, since it affects the right of society to be informed, and cannot be tolerated in a democratic society”, read in the statement.
While acknowledging the efforts undertaken by the State, such as the creation of the National System of Prevention and Protection for human rights defenders and journalists, it called on the authorities to distinguish, from the highest levels of the State, the legitimacy and value of the work of journalists and to repudiate at all times the crimes perpetrated against them.
“The Rapporteurship observes fragility in the guarantees of freedom of expression in Mexico and reminds the State that those who hold positions of public leadership are called to maintain a discourse favorable to public deliberation, and to refrain from making speeches that can, directly or indirectly, encourage or promote violence against communicators and journalists”, the document states.
On September 8, 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruled that “Congress must correct the omissions detected in the General Law on Social Communication, which allow the discretionary spending of government advertising, to establish transparent and clear criteria for its granting.”
The Chamber of Deputies, controlled by the party -created by Andrés Manuel López Obrador- Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), “has ignored the issue and has only said that it has a judicial extension to correct the law until April 30.”
With information from EFE
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