MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president on Friday defended his decision to release a journalist’s phone number, saying a law that bars officials from disclosing personal information does not apply to him.
Watch the briefing in the player above.
Press freedom groups said the president’s decision to make public the phone number of a New York Times reporter on Thursday was an attempt to punish critical reporting and exposed the reporter to potential danger.
Mexico’s personal data protection law states that “the government will guarantee the privacy of individuals” and provides sanctions for officials and others who “use, take, publish, hide, modify or destroy, totally or partially, inappropriate manner of personal data.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared that “the political and moral authority of the President of Mexico is above this law,” adding that “no law can be above the sublime principle of freedom.” He also accused the American media of acting with “arrogance”.
He also downplayed the risks faced by journalists, saying it was “an old song that you (journalists) are using to discredit our government”, and suggesting that the Times reporter should simply “change her number phone “.
Mexico is one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists outside of war zones. The Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, documented the killings of at least 55 journalists in Mexico since 2018, when López Obrador took office.
Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ representative in Mexico, stressed that publishing a journalist’s phone number in Mexico can be dangerous.
“The vast majority of threats, harassment and intimidation that journalists in this country receive, both foreign and domestic, are delivered through messages on messaging apps on cell phones,” Hootsen said.
The situation began on Thursday when López Obrador denied the allegations contained in a New York Times article about a U.S. investigation into allegations that his relatives took money from drug traffickers shortly before his election in 2018 and again after he was president.
The article cited unidentified U.S. officials close to the now-abandoned investigation and noted that no formal investigation had been opened, nor was it clear to what extent the informants’ allegations had been independently confirmed .
As is standard practice, the Times reporter had sent a letter to López Obrador’s spokesperson seeking the president’s comments on the story before publication, and included her phone number as a way to contact her.
During his daily press briefing that day, the president displayed the letter on a large screen and read it aloud, including his phone number.
In a statement published onformerly Twitter, The New York Times wrote: “This is a troubling and unacceptable tactic from a world leader at a time when threats against journalists are increasing. »
Asked about the issue Friday during a White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “this is obviously not something that we support.”
“It’s important that the press be able to report freely on issues that matter to the American people and in a way that obviously makes you all feel safe and in a way that you won’t be harassed or attacked. It’s, you know, it’s something that obviously we would reject,” she said.
Mexico’s National Institute for Transparency and Access to Information, the agency responsible for enforcing personal data laws, announced Thursday the opening of an investigation into the president’s actions.
But it’s unclear how much benefit it will bring: López Obrador has frequently criticized the institute and proposed abolishing it.
Leopoldo Maldonado, of the press freedom group Article 19, said: “Clearly he is doing this with the intention of hindering the work of journalists and trying to prevent the publication of issues of interest public regarding his administration and those around him. »
“This is something the president has already done,” Maldonado noted.
In 2022, López Obrador published a table showing the income of Carlos Loret de Mola, a journalist who had written articles critical of the president.
The president said he had obtained such information – which Loret de Mola said was false – “from the people”, but later said he had based the table in part on tax receipts, which would have been available only to the party that drafted them or for the government tax agency.
López Obrador regularly attacks the media, saying they treat him unfairly and are part of a conservative plot to undermine his administration.
He also expressed anger at what he claims is American tolerance of such media reporting. This is the second time in recent weeks that the foreign press has published articles indicating that the US government has investigated alleged contacts between López Obrador’s allies and drug cartels.
In late January, ProPublica, Deutsche Welle and InSight Crime published articles describing an earlier U.S. investigation into whether López Obrador campaign aides took money from drug traffickers in exchange for facilitating their operations during a unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2006.
In this case, López Obrador placed the blame squarely on the U.S. government and wondered aloud why he should continue to discuss issues like immigration with a government that was trying to harm him.
On Thursday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “There is no investigation into President López Obrador. »
