By Josemaria Moreno
This year we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the celebration of free press. The aim is to defend the advances in human rights, freedom of the press, and freedom of expression that have come about since 1993. Freedom of the press is a right in much of the world, but there are still many factors that have limited democratic advances throughout. There have been many conflicts at the regional and global level, as well as socioeconomic and gender inequalities, which the UN intends to defend, and the celebration of World Press Freedom Day provides a focus for that.
Freedom of the press is a right, and like any right, it entails certain responsibilities. In legal terms there is Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stipulates that freedom of expression is a fundamental right. This also means the right to «receive information and opinions, and to disseminate them, without limitation of frontiers, through any means of expression.” It can be argued that freedom of the press is essential for peace and democracy. It is the ideal way, together with a free and secret vote, to remind governments of their role: guarantor of security and administrator of the institutions that guarantee the well-being of a population.
There is no doubt that Mexico is one of the most problematic countries in which to practice journalism. To name just the most chilling statistic, Article 19 has documented 157 murders of journalists from 2000 to the present. And the statistic gets even worse when you consider that many of these murders are directly related to the government. For example, during the terrible six-year term of Javier Duarte, ruler of Veracruz from 2010 to 2016, there were 18 murders of journalists, some directly linked to exposing the crimes of his government. The murder of Rubén Manuel Espinosa, a photographer and journalist from Proceso, who directly blamed Javier Duarte for corruption and links to drug trafficking, is especially remembered. Rubén was assassinated in Colonia Narvarte, in Mexico City, on July 31, 2015. The work of journalists like Rubén is invaluable for our society, especially when official communication channels are plagued with misinformation and propaganda. In Mexico, as unfortunately in many other places on the planet, the population depends on journalism to denounce and confront abuses of power.
However, freedom of the press entails certain responsibilities. It is said that a journalist, ideally, only has his name and reputation, and his objective is the truth, without qualifications. But what about the many journalists who use their communication platform to misinform or whose platform is at the disposal of the highest bidder? A prime example is the recent case of Fox News in the United States. The news agency had to pay $787 million as a settlement because of lies they allowed to be spread on their platform about the 2020 presidential election being stolen.
Only a day after this devastating legal blow, Fox News announced that it was letting go of its star host, Tucker Carlson. The lies that this dismal human being spread during his tenure in the company represents the most negative crucible of journalistic practice in that country. He continuously lied about migration, human rights, and democracy. There was no issue that this skillful manipulator did not misrepresent to spread fear and advance the agenda of those agencies and individuals he promoted, from the National Rifle Association to Donald Trump.
For decades, the federal government of Mexico set aside huge amounts of money to pay journalists to spread the biased information they wanted to present to the people. In the government of Peña Nieto alone, 60,237 million pesos were spent on advertising. This meant that 10 media outlets kept 48% of that budget, and the rest was divided among 850 other media outlets. It is unconscionable that journalists could be sponsored or bought by the government when they are supposed to control and denounce it. In this regard, la mañanera—an exercise in direct communication between the federal government and the population of Mexico, was a great success. It leaves a lot of room for improvement in its attempt for objectivity. However, it represents a certain success of the current government because it opened the microphone to more independent dissemination and information channels. The new global trend is toward an informative opening on social networks and the cementing of dissident voices. That is how it ought to be in journalism, particularly denouncing the abuses of power of current leaders.
In short, freedom of the press is a fundamental democratic exercise and an inalienable right. It is something that we need to protect and that many have defended to the death. But it also entails high levels of responsibility and work ethic that, unfortunately, in many cases are sold to the highest bidder.
We asked Francisco Peyret his opinion on press freedom in Mexico, and this was his response. “From my point of view, freedom of the press in Mexico has changed a lot. During the second half of the 20th century, the media were highly controlled by the state. For more than 70 years we lived with the hegemony of a single country in power; it was very difficult to find information and space in the media. With the arrival of the new century and the entry of new parties into governments, independent media arose, for which communication improved considerably.
“However, violence in Mexico began to increase during the presidency of Felipe Calderón of the PAN, who took office in 2006. Calderón declared war against drug trafficking in the country, and this fight led to a significant increase in violence and organized crime. The violence affected press freedom in Mexico, as many journalists were victims of attacks and threats.
“In 2012 the PRI returned to power with the election of Enrique Peña Nieto as president. During his tenure, freedom of the press in Mexico suffered a setback. The Peña Nieto government used official advertising and media buying to control information, and there were many cases of journalists being killed or threatened. Currently, violence against journalists has not decreased. According to the complaints, they have been victims of drug trafficking, corrupt businessmen, and rulers. Unfortunately, the journalists who have been victims of violence are the real journalists, those journalists who investigate and seek the truth in the news with professional rigor.
“What is happening in Mexico is that the most popular media and journalists are totally captured by two conflicting forces: the government in power vs. an opposition bloc that has the traditional media on its side. The spectacle that we citizens have to suffer is a battle, now in electronic media, of shouting and immediate hating. It is a parallel world where political forces stand as the representatives of the people and the country. In congresses we see how our representatives gesticulate and shout madly with very poor arguments and full of pure demagoguery, in reality they are fighting for their own interests.
“Freedom of the press in Mexico is not working for the citizens. First because true journalists are in danger of extinction and, second, freedom of the press is now used to make political propaganda in favor of one or the other party or interest group seeking to preserve its power. The press produced is full of short phrases, simple ideas, many lies, and hatred for those who think differently.
“Paradoxically, Mexicans have never had access to so much information. Unfortunately, the freedom that the press has in Mexico is used to defend the political and economic interests that benefit them. In the midst of so much information, it is difficult to find impartial, sensible, and profound journalists.
“Finally, this struggle between two poles of power uses the press to promote its own truth. In a way they are hijacking the freedom of expression of citizens. When it occurs to them to demonstrate for any cause, the media appears. Communication, political parties, and all related interests set themselves up as our representatives. Whatever the cause, they are willing to hijack any citizen initiative.”
