Brutality against the press in Mexico reached historic levels during the first part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's term, increasing 85% from the first quarter of his predecessor's administration, as per the report released Wednesday.
The claim comes as Mexico deals with a wave of journalist assassinations that has sparked outrage from local media and lawmakers in the United States, and Obrador has been known to target journalists during news conferences.
According to human rights organization Article 19, Obrador attacked the press on average six times each month last 2021. Obrador slammed European legislators last month when they voted a resolution requesting him to tone down his attitude toward journalists, referring to them as "sheep."
Last year, an occurrence of press brutality was reported every 14 hours on average, and Article 19 discovered that two out of every five of them were tied to public officials.
"The ongoing violence against the press is the product of irresponsible authorities, both current and former, who have been unwilling to investigate crimes against freedom of speech," according to the non-government organization.
In the first three years and one month of Obrador's six-year mandate, there were 1,945 similar attacks on the press, including 25 fatalities, the report said. At the same point as his predecessor Enrique Pena Nieto's presidency, there had been 1,053 attacks, with 15 deaths.
A global alliance of news organizations revealed last year that the previous administration deployed the Israeli spyware Pegasus against human rights activists, educators, scholars, and journalists, resulting in widespread illegal hacking.
Cecilio Pineda, a local government and crime reporter in Guerrero, was murdered in 2017, and his phone was labeled for monitoring, according to the investigators.
"Journalists' deaths have a horrible impact on their families and the field as a whole," Patricia Mayorga, a reporter for the weekly Proceso, said.
With eight deaths in the first three months of 2022, the first three months of the year were the bloodiest for journalists since Article 19 began keeping track in 2000. A request for a comment from the president's spokesperson was not immediately returned.
Lourdes Maldonado, a journalist, assassinated in January, had asked for help from Obrador during a press conference, stating she was afraid for her life despite being apparently enrolled in the state's journalists safety program.
Article 19 claims that Mexico's security programs, which operate at both the state and federal levels, are politically crippled.
Obrador was encouraged by the non-governmental organization to strengthen measures of prevention, security, and accessibility to justice for journalists.
