MIAMI, Florida (August 17, 2018)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed its concern at the reaction of President Donald Trump after hundreds of United States newspapers published editorials in response to his attacks upon the press which he has called "the enemy of the people."
"From the IAPA we express solidarity with the news media that participated in Thursday's simultaneous informative initiative to denounce the persistent antagonism that President Trump maintains toward journalists and news media that criticize him, and to ratify the validity of the Constitution's First Amendment," declared IAPA President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República.
The same day that more than 300 American newspapers published editorials – replicated in numerous international media – in defense of press freedom and to reaffirm that they are not anyone's enemy, the reaction of President Trump on Twitter was to say that "THE FAKE NEWS IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY."
Mohme, who took part in February in a joint mission of the IAPA and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) to Washington, DC, regarding press freedom issues, at the time warned that "the experience of other political contexts in Latin America has shown us that the anti-press political ravings through campaigns of discrediting in which journalists and media are described as accomplices of coup d'états, who go against democracy or are true enemies of the people, can give rise to dangerous collateral effects."
In line with the complaint by the news media that denounced the constant attacks by President Trump the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution reaffirming "the vital and indispensable role the free press" and condemning "the attacks on the institution of the free press".
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida.