A reporter informed Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday that his supporters had harassed her while she was trying to report on an event in June. She criticized him for polarizing society and putting journalists at risk as a result.
When asked what he would do about it, the president reacted with disdain and disinterest, simply saying “nothing, nothing, nothing.”
During his daily press conference on Tuesday, López Obrador also claimed that another reporter he didn’t like was a DEA agent or informant. Given that drug cartels are prevalent in Mexico, this is a potentially hazardous accusation; since 2000, at least 142 reporters and media professionals have been killed.
Recently, a journalist who covered one of the country’s most hazardous crime beats was slain by gunmen, and two of his government-assigned bodyguards were injured.
For a long time, journalists have complained about suffering verbal abuse from López Obrador, who has falsely accused some of them of being paid mouthpieces for conservatives.
While López Obrador has held more news briefings than any president before him and answered more questions, reporters also claim that they frequently experience online and in-person harassment from the die-hard supporters of the president if they ask him tough questions.
This issue came to a head on Tuesday when independent reporter Reyna Ramírez described an incident in June where a group of angry fans of the president approached her, shouting ” journalist for sale,” and compelling her to flee the event she was covering. “I am at risk because of this now anyone can attack me in the street, you have polarized society don’t you have anything to say about that?” Ramírez said.
“Have you gone on long enough?” López Obrador responded when questioned about what he would do to control his supporters. Pressed to answer what he would do, he simply stated “nothing, nothing, nothing.”
A few minutes later, the president criticized journalist and author Anabel Hernández, whose most recent book describes the alleged relationships between the current government and Mexican drug cartels. López Obrador claimed that Hernández was a DEA agent or informant.
The Mexican president has refused to address the drug cartels, saying that drug traffickers are individuals who have made the wrong choice in life but claims they “respect the citizenry.” López Obrador denies having any deal with the cartels and asserts without evidence that the accusations are part of a DEA plot to malign him.
It is not the first time the president has attacked Hernández. “It’s frustrating that the president views narcos as a component of society, but sees journalists who investigate them as enemies,” Hernández said.
In May, she complained that López Obrador’s hostility and accusations had made it difficult for her to work. With the president’s aggressivity and hate speech, there is no way to present a book, Hernández stated at the time. It would wind up being too hazardous for me and those attending. “While López Obrador asserts he is more open to the press than any previous Mexican president, his daily morning news briefings frequently favor soft-ball questions from sympathetic news organizations.
In the past, López Obrador has used confidential tax and banking records to publish the salaries of journalists he dislikes, and revealed the personal phone number of a foreign correspondent.
International freedom-of-the-press groups have criticized the president’s attacks on the press, as have the US State Department and the Organization of American States, noting they put already exposed journalists at greater risk.
Media workers are frequently targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country’s notoriously violent drug traffickers. 2022 was one of the deadliest years ever for journalists in Mexico, with at least 15 killed.
All but a few of the killings and abductions remain unsolved.
Impunity is the norm in crimes against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in its report on Mexico in March.
Source: CBS News
