IAPA criticizes Trump broadside against Jorge Ramos

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today criticized a new outburst against the press by Republican U.S. presidential pre-candidate Donald Trump after he expelled from a news conference Hispanic television newsman in the United States Jorge Ramos.

Ramos, the leading figure of the Univisión television network based in Miami, was removed by a Trump bodyguard from a news conference that was being held in Iowa on Tuesday after he asked about Trump’s migration plan in his government program. Other journalists asked Trump about the expulsion of Ramos, who later was allowed back in to put his questions.

IAPA President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, stressed “the importance of the work of the press in seeking and disseminating information, which includes confronting spokespersons, especially public figures and candidates.” In this regard he added, “To put obstacles to that work is detrimental to the public’s right to be duly informed.”

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, declared: “We are concerned that Trump’s offensive attitude already manifested in a personal and gross manner against several journalists could become the norm that will have to be borne during this long race for the presidency of his country.”

American journalist Megyn Kelly, of the Fox television network, was also a victim of Trump’s rude comments after she questioned him during the first debate of Republican Party pre-candidates. Trump in addition prohibited reporters with The Des Moines Register from attending his campaign events after an editorial, in their newspaper called on him to abandon his presidential aspirations.