IWMF Spotlight: Reporting on Mexico’s presidential election

IWMF Spotlight: Reporting on Mexico’s presidential election

In June, Mexico marked an important moment in its history, electing climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum as its first woman president.

But the struggle for gender equality has not been easy. In this election cycle alone, the newsroom Verificado MX tracked at least 30 instances of hate speech (such as sexism, racism and xenophobia), misinformation and disinformation, often targeted at women, LGBTQ+ people and migrants.

Supported by a grant from the IWMF Fund for Women Journalists, Verificado MX’s Observatory on Hate Speech and Disinformation published analysis on its website; social media explainers on TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook; and discussions on its “Del Dicho al Hecho” podcast.

We spoke to Daniela Mendoza and Liliana Elósegui, whose team of fact-checkers spent several months monitoring online sentiment about marginalized political candidates. This conversation was translated from Spanish.

IWMF: Beyond the numbers, what were the most significant qualitative impacts of the Observatory?

Daniela Mendoza and Liliana Elósegui: The Observatory revealed three findings. The first is the conditions of profound violence under which women candidates develop their campaigns. They are victims of digital and physical attacks which have led, in some cases, to their death.

When it comes to sexually diverse, Indigenous and Afro-descendant populations, we observed that affirmative actions intended to ensure their access to elected positions and protect their political electoral rights were misused. Cisgender men were falsely registered as transgender women, Indigenous people or Afro-descendants in electoral records.

Lastly, we found xenophobic rhetoric in many campaign proposals from candidates, fueling a narrative of hate that stigmatizes migrant populations.

What was the most shocking piece of disinformation that you covered?

One of the stories that generated the most interaction, comments and debate was about the candidate for the municipality of Monterrey, Patricio Zambrano. Zambrano, a businessman who became famous for his participation in a reality show and has run for the same position three times, based part of his campaign on xenophobic rhetoric towards migrants.

In his campaign video, Patricio Zambrano stated, “No more migrants begging for money, whether nationals or foreigners (…) Do you want to keep begging or asking for help? Onto the bus and back home.”

However, the Mexican Constitution, in Article 11, stipulates that Mexican citizens have the right to travel, relocate or change their residence within the country, making the proposal to “send national migrants back home” illegal.
How did readers react to your fact-checking?

At the project’s launch, we received negative feedback about the newsworthiness of hate content, with debates on why it’s impractical to criticize female candidates. Many messages failed to comprehend the difference between questioning someone’s political work and their appearance, personal life or religion.

During the first stage of the project, we focused on sharing explanatory content to inform the audience about sexism, hate speech and politically motivated gender-based violence, as well as the methodology we were using to label these discourses.

After this adaptation period, we continuously called on the audience to share messages they wanted us to analyze. We also consistently explained our methodology on social media, which somewhat curbed the questioning and, instead, generated inquiries and dialogue with the audience.

Mexico elected Claudia Sheinbaum as its first woman president. What is your outlook on women’s rights in this new government?

Without a doubt, it’s a historic moment for the country, and we hope that her leadership can translate into significant advances for Mexico’s struggle for gender equality. Women participating in spaces historically occupied by men is a major advance, but it’s not enough to achieve equality.  The struggle for women’s rights doesn’t start or end with a female president.

And we are conscious that this advancement is not a result of chance. It comes from the collective effort of thousands of women who have fought to take space denied to us because of our gender.

As we turn this new page in history, it’s up to us to keep pushing for policies that ensure everyone’s right to a dignified life. We need a government with a genuine gender perspective that’s also intersectional, anti-racist and disability-inclusive. It must address the deep-rooted inequality and lack of justice in our country.
Featured Projects
Read more IWMF-supported stories about the fight for gender quality in Mexico.
 

 
Election safety in the United States

As political tensions rise ahead of the 2024 U.S. general election, the IWMF has worked directly with local news outlets, universities and media associations to address the rising hostility toward journalists in the field.

This year, we launched the Newsroom Safety Across America initiative to provide wrap-around support for journalists and newsrooms. So far, we have traveled to 10 states for in-person trainings that cover the basics of physical, digital, legal, and psychological safety. We’ve trained more than 500 journalists in swing states and other areas receiving heightened attention during the election cycle, and we see this as an initial touchpoint for other safety resources, such as free consultations with our trainers, newsroom policy development and emergency assistance.

Our trainings with journalists across the country have exposed a disturbing decline in journalist safety. Reporters in the U.S. are facing a range of physical, legal and digital attacks with serious consequences for their health, their work and press freedom. In interviews, participants described experience with or concern about physical violence from law enforcement, online attacks from extremist groups and being targeted at protests and rallies as members of the media.

Through our participant survey,* we found that local journalists are already facing intense threats in the field:

  • 38% of respondents reported being threatened with or experiencing physical violence while working as a journalist.
  • 31% of respondents reported being threatened with or experiencing digital violence while working as a journalist.
  • 27% of respondents reported legal threats or action against them while working as a journalist.
*These findings are as of June 2024 with 368 respondents in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New York, Michigan and Nevada. 
And we’re still on the road! This summer, we’ll be at AAJA, NLGJA and ONA, and we’ve opened a session in Austin, Texas on August 6. More sessions will be announced via our social media channels and on the IWMF website.
 

 
Open Opportunities

Apply by August 12: Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice in the Americas reporting grant initiative

*NEW* Ongoing: Applications accepted on a rolling basis for the Safety in Numbers initiative, which will provide identity-informed newsroom training to newsrooms in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean

Ongoing: Applications accepted on a rolling basis for the Fund for Women Journalists

Ongoing: Applications accepted on a rolling basis for the Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing & Murdered Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender People (MMIWG2T)

Newsroom Safety Across America trainings

  • AUSTIN (August 6): One-day training with the Texas Tribune (form), deadline to apply is July 31.
  • WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 23): One-day training with Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press (form), deadline to apply is September 9.
  • MIAMI (October 2-3): Two one-day trainings supported by the Knight Foundation (form), deadline to apply is September 16.
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