Media and organizations reject Petro calling journalists “mafia puppets”

Bogotá, Sep 2 (EFE).- Media outlets, journalists and organizations such as the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) They rejected Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s call to female journalists “mafia dolls” in a new attack against the press.

At an event last Friday, during the inauguration of the new ombudsman, Iris Marín, the president assured that “The journalists in power, the ‘mafia’s puppets’, constructed the thesis of terrorism in protest and the criminalization of the genuine right to protest and to say enough.”

The Ombudsman herself rejected the claims, saying that “there is no room for stigmatization or insults towards journalists. Nothing justifies it,” but the president, far from apologizing, reiterated on his X account that: “when I speak of establishment journalists, I am referring to those who are not at the service of the citizens, but those who work for dark powers.”

“Since his speech was delivered, multiple messages have been published on social media that echo the president’s words, to broadcast violent content or reproduce gender stereotypes against women journalists,” recalled the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) on Monday, which asked the president to refrain from “making stigmatizing statements.”

«Prepaid whores»

Prisa Media, the media conglomerate that owns Caracol Radio and W Radio in Colombia, rejected the statements that “stigmatize and disqualify the work of women journalists.”

“In the history of journalism in Colombia, the work of women to inform, investigate and denounce has been fundamental to the construction of an informed and critical society,” Prisa said in a statement, where they also ask the president to “respect freedom of the press” and “the dignity of the professional practice of Colombian female journalists.”

One of Caracol’s journalists, Vanessa de la Torre, said on Monday morning on the program she co-hosts: “One does not have time to pay attention to such a level of madness from the president, which is disrespectful to us journalists, who is calling us ‘paid prostitutes’, which is what the mafia’s dolls were.”

“These words say everything about Petro as a person, as a man, as a president. What he thinks of women, how he sees them, what he thinks of them. ‘The dolls of the mafia’, a phrase that the president uses to refer to journalists and that has a profound meaning. Pure MISOGYNY, MACHISMO. Petro despises women,” said the director of ‘Semana’, Vicky Dávila, who has launched herself into politics.

While Claudia Palacios, presenter and journalist, pointed out that “when stigmatization comes from a figure of power, such as a President of the Republic, who precisely because of the dignity of his office has, more than any citizen, the legal and ethical duty to guarantee freedom of expression, the right to information and freedom of the press, the damage is of immeasurable dimensions.”

Cases of violence

And El Veinte, a group for freedom of expression, recalled that 70% of women in the country suffer some type of violence and that in Colombia there have been more than a thousand cases of violations against the freedom of the press of women journalists since 1938, so the statements are “worrying.”

Between 2023 and 2024, FLIP has recorded 171 cases of attacks against women journalists, of which 43 have been threats.

“The president has an important microphone through which he can install harmful and discriminatory narratives. His statements violate the standards of the Inter-American Human Rights System, (…) and authorize violence against women journalists in Colombia,” the group denounced.

For its part, FLIP considered that “as spokesperson for the Colombian State, the president must commit to guaranteeing the rights of women journalists and ensuring that they are not attacked for the work they do.”

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