Mexico president defends disclosing reporter’s phone number
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president on Friday defended his decision to disclose a reporter’s telephone number, saying a law that prohibits officials from releasing personal information doesn’t apply to him.
Press freedom groups said the president’s decision to make public the phone number of a New York Times reporter Thursday was an attempt to punish critical reporting and exposed the reporter to potential danger.
Mexico’s law on Protection of Personal Data states that “the government will guarantee individuals’ privacy” and sets out punishments for officials and others for “improperly using, taking, publishing, hiding, altering or destroying, fully or partially, personal data.”
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that “the political and moral authority of the president of Mexico is above that law,” adding that “no law can be above the sublime principle of liberty.” He also accused U.S. media of acting with “arrogance.” He also downplayed the risks to journalists, saying it was “an old song that you (reporters) use to discredit our government,” and suggesting the Times reporter should just “change her telephone number.”
Mexico is one of the deadliest places in the world for reporters outside of war zones. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented the killings of at least 55 journalists in Mexico since 2018, when López Obrador took office.
Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative for the CPJ, noted that the publication of a reporter’s phone number in Mexico can be dangerous.
“The vast majority of threats and harassment and intimidation that reporters in this country, both foreign and domestic, receive, are conveyed through messages on messaging apps to mobile phones,” Hootsen said.
The situation began Thursday when López Obrador denied allegations in a New York Times story about a U.S. investigation into claims that people close to him took money from drug traffickers shortly before his 2018 election and again after he was president.
The story cited unidentified U.S. officials familiar with the now shelved inquiry and noted that a formal investigation was not opened, nor was it known how much of the informants’ allegations were independently confirmed.
As is common practice, the Times reporter had sent a letter to López Obrador’s spokesman asking for the president’s comment on the story before it was published, and it included her telephone number as a means of contacting her.
At his daily press briefing that day, the president displayed the letter on a large screen and read it aloud, including the phone number.
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, the New York Times wrote that “This is a troubling and unacceptable tactic from a world leader at a time when threats against journalists are on the rise.”
Asked about the issue Friday at a White House press briefing, press secretary Karine JeanPierre said “obviously, that’s not something we support.”
“It is important for the press to be able to report on issues that matter to the American people freely and in a way that, obviously, you all feel secure and safe and in a way that you’re not being doxed or attacked.
That is, you know, that is something that we will obviously reject,” she said.
Mexico’s National Institute for Transparency and Information Access, the agency charged with upholding personal data laws, announced Thursday it is launching an investigation into the president’s actions.
The head of the institute, Adrián Alcalá, wrote in his social media accounts that “all officials must obey the law and the Constitution, absolutely nobody is above them.”
“It is regrettable that the president is not aware of how serious it is to release anyone’s phone number, especially a journalist,” Alcalá wrote. He noted that if the president is found to have violated the law, he could face fines.
It is unclear how much of a deterrent that would be. López Obrador has frequently criticized the institute and has proposed abolishing it.