Defying international criticism, the mayor of Bolivia’s largest city renewed his verbal assault on the media on Monday, repeatedly belittling a photographer whom he then drove out of a public press conference.
Santa Cruz mayor Percy Fernández reportedly called Enrique Canedo, of El Deber, an “ass” with a “stupid face” and said, “I’d like to shove him [Canedo] out of here, but I can’t because they’ll report me”.
Fernández then added: “Get out of here, kid, it’s not dignified for you to be here, go climb up on to the roof and throw yourself into the deepest part of the river.”
Last week, IPI reported on several earlier incidents involving Fernández, most notably one on Sep. 1 in which the mayor reportedly said he would like to see the editor of El Deber and other journalists “buried two meters underground”. Those remarks were strongly criticised by IPI as well as Bolivia’s National Press Association (ANP, according to its Spanish acronym) and the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA).
IPI today reiterated its call for Mayor Fernández to cease his invective against the media, which IPI believes is not only unacceptable for a public official, but also risks contributing to the creation of a climate in which the lives of Santa Cruz’s journalists are at risk, and encourages self-censorship.