Sinembargo: Francisco Ortiz Pinchetti*
The International Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Regarding the Safety of Journalists - composed of seventeen international, national and regional organizations -, in its report on Mexico released a few days ago, warns that it is very worrisome that the President [Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO] tries to pass off disqualifications of the media and journalists as a right to reply. It truly is worrisome.
I have repeatedly referred in this space to the concocted and tricky distortions by the President of an undeniable right. He is distorting, not disproving or clarifying, information that is negative for him. Invariably, his response is to disqualify the media and assault journalists with all kinds of denigrating epithets.
From the presidential pulpit, López Obrador denies the history and evolution of modern journalism, not only in Mexico but throughout the world, by demanding - with a warning tone of "Watch out!" - total unconditional support of his projects, under penalty of being condemned to ignominy by his flaming finger. To do so, he makes a fallacious use of what he calls "the right of reply" - which means one has the right to refute, disprove or clarify - not to disqualify, not to refuse to respond. As I wrote last July 26:
Far from resorting to that right to effectively refute false or inaccurate information, if that were the case, what AMLO does is to lash out against the media in question with qualifications such as “fifi press” [AMLO's colloquial term meaning stuck-up, self-centered], “neoliberal”, “conservative” or “ chayoteros [term used in past times for journalists receiving bribes from the government]”. As I recall, in this first year of his administration, he has not fully refuted a single piece of information regarding the country's insecurity, economics or corruption of officials of his own cabinet, such as the director of the Federal Electricity Commission, Manuel Bartlett Díaz.
Instead, almost every day in his morning press conference, he attacks anyone of the media that has published some information that is adverse to him as well as any of the journalists who are present there who dare to ask uncomfortable questions. All this is based on his modest self-assertion that his moral and political authority (sic) allow him to use his right of reply to the statements of the press, which he says did not happen.
His response to the conclusions of the aforementioned coalition of civil society organizations defending journalists last Wednesday is regrettable. Again he resorted to systematic denial and disqualification, despite the overwhelming evidence of his statements and deeds throughout these first eleven months of his administration.
Without the slightest blush, he denied to the representatives of the Coalition that he had used offensive language against journalists or had contributed to their stigmatization with attacks or threats against the press.
The International Coalition of Civil Society Organizations Regarding the Safety of Journalists - composed of seventeen international, national and regional organizations -, in its report on Mexico released a few days ago, warns that it is very worrisome that the President [Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO] tries to pass off disqualifications of the media and journalists as a right to reply. It truly is worrisome.
At the end of their observation mission in our country, the organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and Article 19, said:
"The attempt to camouflage insults and disqualifications as a right to reply instead of fostering an open and pluralistic debate is worrisome."
They warned that this position of the President is "irresponsible and dangerous" in a country like Mexico, where at least 10 journalists have been killed so far this year and the aggressions against them are increasing. And they warned that attacks against Mexican journalists have grown in the last year, fueled by the rhetoric and stigmatization by the new government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The issue is absolutely crucial in order to understand the type of relationship that the Mexican President has decided to have with the media and journalists, and the consequences that this position implies in a country where problems become more and more out of control.
The issue is absolutely crucial in order to understand the type of relationship that the Mexican President has decided to have with the media and journalists, and the consequences that this position implies in a country where problems become more and more out of control.
I have repeatedly referred in this space to the concocted and tricky distortions by the President of an undeniable right. He is distorting, not disproving or clarifying, information that is negative for him. Invariably, his response is to disqualify the media and assault journalists with all kinds of denigrating epithets.
From the presidential pulpit, López Obrador denies the history and evolution of modern journalism, not only in Mexico but throughout the world, by demanding - with a warning tone of "Watch out!" - total unconditional support of his projects, under penalty of being condemned to ignominy by his flaming finger. To do so, he makes a fallacious use of what he calls "the right of reply" - which means one has the right to refute, disprove or clarify - not to disqualify, not to refuse to respond. As I wrote last July 26:
“Clearly, the President does not understand - or pretends not to understand - something that is simply indisputable: the right of a journalist to exercise freedom of information and criticism, whether or not the political protagonists who feel affected like it. In fact, we are in the presence not only of an intolerant attitude, but of a new modality of censorship. Nothing else.”We will have to remind him once again that the right to reply, long ago included in the old Press Law of President Venustiano Carranza [first president after the Mexican Revolution and the Constitution of 1917], is the power of any person or institution that considers himself to be harmed regarding his honor, prestige or dignity by information, news or comment published in a communication medium to demand repair of the damage suffered by having his clarification published in the same media and under identical conditions.
Far from resorting to that right to effectively refute false or inaccurate information, if that were the case, what AMLO does is to lash out against the media in question with qualifications such as “fifi press” [AMLO's colloquial term meaning stuck-up, self-centered], “neoliberal”, “conservative” or “ chayoteros [term used in past times for journalists receiving bribes from the government]”. As I recall, in this first year of his administration, he has not fully refuted a single piece of information regarding the country's insecurity, economics or corruption of officials of his own cabinet, such as the director of the Federal Electricity Commission, Manuel Bartlett Díaz.
Instead, almost every day in his morning press conference, he attacks anyone of the media that has published some information that is adverse to him as well as any of the journalists who are present there who dare to ask uncomfortable questions. All this is based on his modest self-assertion that his moral and political authority (sic) allow him to use his right of reply to the statements of the press, which he says did not happen.
His response to the conclusions of the aforementioned coalition of civil society organizations defending journalists last Wednesday is regrettable. Again he resorted to systematic denial and disqualification, despite the overwhelming evidence of his statements and deeds throughout these first eleven months of his administration.
Without the slightest blush, he denied to the representatives of the Coalition that he had used offensive language against journalists or had contributed to their stigmatization with attacks or threats against the press.
“I have never used language that stigmatizes journalists. We do not use offensive language; we are respectful; we only exercise our right to reply because we also have the right to present our side, we are free,” he said.He stubbornly insisted that never, in the time he has been in politics, has he harmed or assaulted a journalist, nor would he do so as a matter of principle, of conviction.
"We will continue to be respectful, but I cannot accept that we are disrespecting the media in any way; we will never do it; it is a matter of principle," he swore.
The newspaper Reforma accompanied the report of his response with a litany of adjectives that the President himself has publicly used regarding the press:
- "Fifi press, conservatives, journalistic underworld, the media are lacking.
- They keep a complicit silence, if they overlook something, they do so knowingly.
- They show their true selves, they lie as they breathe.
- Proceso did not behave properly with us [Proceso is a weekly news magazine with a daily updated website known for its investigative journalism and revelation of various acts of government corruption];
- I hardly read the papers anymore;
- Camajanes [persons who cunningly know how to get benefit for themselves from a situation],
- They bite the hand that removed their muzzle;
- They are corrupt, chayoteros [bribed journalists].
- Reforma [one of Mexico's best newspapers] is not going to dictate the agenda to me; if it continues like this, it will end up as a pasquín [trashy publication, yellow journalism] ..."
Spanish original
*Francisco Ortiz Pinchetti was a reporter for Excelsior. He was one of the founders of the weekly Proceso, where he was a reporter, special affairs editor and co-director. He is currently director of the newspaper Libre en el Sur (Free in the South) and of the site www.libreenelsur.mx. He is the author of "De pueblo en pueblo" (Of Village People) (Ocean, 2000) and co-author of "The Fox Phenomenon" (Planet, 2001). @fopinchetti