The IAPA rejected the “Who’s Who in the Lies of the Week” launched by AMLO

The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) rejected the appellant President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s stigmatization campaign against Mexican journalists and media, for which he called for their immediate cessation, since they tend to degenerate into acts of violence.

The IAPA, made up of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere based in Miami, Florida (United States), recalled that during the morning conference on June 30, President López Obrador initiated the space “Who’s who in the lies of the week”, dedicated to attacking the media, “Highlighting fake news” and directly accusing journalists.

“López Obrador’s new action against the press is nothing new, it reminds us of the dangerous discredit campaigns of leaders and officials who censor and disqualify the independent press from the public forum”Honduran journalist Jorge Canahuati, president of IAPA, warned in a statement released on July 2.

The Chairman of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, warned that, “In the case of Mexico, one of the countries where the risk to the exercise of journalism is the highest, the direct speech of the presidency with insults against journalists and the media is doubly dangerous, a type of aggression which, as experience indicates, usually degenerates. in acts of violence “.

Canahuati, from Grupo Opsa, from Honduras, and Jornet, editor of the newspaper The voice from within, from Argentina, agreed that disqualifications by speeches “They are configuring indirect censorship measures aimed at distorting public debate”.

In October 2019, at the 75th General Assembly of IAPA, held in Coral Gables, Florida, the Inter-American Press Association issued a resolution warning that “regardless of the ideological bias of the presidents of the region, it s this is a usual practice (attack on journalists) of Presidents Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil; Nayib Bukele, in El Salvador; Donald Trump, in the United States; Jimmy Morales, in Guatemala; Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in Mexico; Daniel Ortega, in Nicaragua, and Nicolás Maduro, in Venezuela ”.

The IAPA Chapultepec Declaration, a decalogue of principles on freedom of speech and of the press, also states that: “The media and journalists should not be discriminated against or favored because of this. whether they write or say, “SIP pointed out.

In the resolution of its 75th Assembly held in 2019, the Inter-American Press Association called on the presidents of Brazil, El Salvador, the United States, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela to end stigmatization practices who encourage the violence of their supporters against the media and journalists.

Last April, IAPA presented the findings of its mid-year meeting, in which it spoke out against the harassment of Latin American journalists by governments, mainly in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and in El Salvador.

The Inter-American Press Association explained that, despite the work that communicators offer, in power, they continue to discredit and stigmatize journalism, using their social networks or government tools.

“From political power, progress continues to discredit and stigmatize the exercise of journalism, generating a hostile climate that can degenerate into concrete violent actions against the media and journalists,” he said.

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