‘Next Mexican president must protect media’

Mexico’s next leader must take decisive action to tackle a “spiral of violence” against journalists that outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador failed to halt, Reporters Without Borders said on Friday.

The media rights group urged the three candidates in the June 2 presidential election “to finally commit to concrete measures to protect journalists and combat impunity”.

At least 37 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, according to the organisation, known by its French initials RSF.

“Lopez Obrador is approaching the end of his presidential term leaving a tragic record resulting from the ubiquitous violence against journalists,” said RSF Latin America bureau director Artur Romeu.

“He did not make their protection a priority, and instead permitted a spiral of violence against the press and the rise of ‘zones of silence’, causing an erosion of the right to information in Mexico.”

Lopez Obrador has also continued “to express hostility” towards the work of the media, including at his daily press conferences, RSF said.

Since 1995, at least 156 journalists have been murdered for investigating drug trafficking and other crimes, according to the rights group.

While the three presidential candidates — Claudia Sheinbaum, Xochitl Galvez and Jorge Alvarez Maynez — have referred repeatedly to violent crime and corruption on the campaign trail, “they have never talked about the tragic fate reserved for Mexico’s journalists”, it said.

“It is vital that they... include concrete measures for the protection of media personnel in their electoral programmes and campaign proposals.”