World Press Freedom Day: the challenges of a year marked by killings, censorship and the stigmatization of journalists

"It's not a day of celebration". This is the message of the President of the Inter-American Press Association (SIP), Maria Elvira Domínguez, editor of the newspaper The country of Colombia, in World Press Freedom Day. The phrase, chosen with astuteness, impacts and worries but is mainly used to trigger alarms about what is happening today with the freedom of the press in Latin America, where they register again. retracements and indexes continue to decline.

Detentions of journalists in Nicaragua; repression, censorship and the limits of the right to demonstrate under the regimes of Nicolás Maduro, Daniel Ortega and Miguel Díaz Canel; killings of journalists – 26 in the last year, most of them in Mexico, where there is an absolutely defective system of protection for journalists; corruption, organized crime and crime limiting daily journalistic work; impunity, stigmatization, false news economic suffocation of the opposition media and restrictions on access to public information.

The list goes on and eclipses, again, the World Press Freedom Day, date chosen by UNESCO in commemoration of the Windhoek Declaration, a document containing the fundamental principles of the defense of press freedom, written in 1991 at a meeting of African journalists.

"In fact, there are different types of problems in many countries of our continent and the task and the idea that IAPA wishes to convey is that we can not stay calm, we are today. witnesses of aberrant crimes and a worrying situation. There are many reasons that describe a very difficult panorama, before which we have no choice but to raise our voices, to denounce and not to accept what is happening, "he said. Infobae Maria Elvira Domínguez.

Current challenges around the world

Attacks on the press have no exclusive consequences for the world of communication but have their counterpart, explain the experts, in the quality of our democracies. "No democracy is complete without access to transparent and reliable information, essential pillar to create fair and impartial institutions, empower leaders and tell the truth to the authorities, "he said. Antonio GuterresSecretary General of The United Nations. The body will perform an act on May 3 Ethiopia, one of the few countries in the world that, in the past year, has made progress in terms of freedom of the press and expression under the motto "Means for democracy: journalism and elections at the time of misinformation".

In the overall diagnosis of freedom of the press, a separate chapter takes the phenomenon of false news This is a problema global scale that has already been held accountable for election results in several countries around the world. According to the president of SIP, it is a difficult problem to fight. "Any regulation can be a boomerang against the freedom of the press, because the line of demarcation between state regulation and censorship is very thin. Journalists, the media and citizens have the responsibility to disseminate accurate information. This is why it is urgent to develop tools to detect what is and what is not. false news "he explains.

For its part, the organization Reporters Without Borders published on the occasion of the commemorative date a world ranking on freedom of the press, with an badysis of the situation in 180 countries and territories and, again, an alert on the risks and dangers that journalism practices, in addition to the consequences for democracies. Only 24% of the 180 countries and territories badyzed have a "good" or "quite good" situation in this area, whereas the previous year this percentage was 26%.

RSF warns against "the installation of a mechanism of fear very detrimental to the exercise of journalism. Hostility towards journalists, including the hatred conveyed by political leaders in many countries, has led to increasingly serious and frequent acts of violence, increasing the dangers to the press and creating fear. unprecedented in some places. "Christophe Deloire, his general secretary, said:" If the political debate falls surreptitiously or obviously in a context of civil war, in which journalists become victims of deportation, democratic models are in great danger ".

In the 2019 RSF ranking, Norway takes first place for the third year in a row, while Finland occupies the second, surpbading the Netherlands, because two journalists specializing in organized crime must live under permanent police protection. For its part, Sweden fell from a position to third place due to the resurgence of cyberbullying. At the bottom of the list, some authoritarian regimes have even worsened in their positions. This is the case of Venezuela, which lost 5 places in 148th place because journalists face arrests and acts of violence by regime forces. A position below Venezuela was located Russia, where the government has increased the pressure it exerts on the independent media and its control over the Internet, using arbitrary arrests, searches, and draconian laws.

Nicaragua, Venezuela and Mexico

As part of World Press Freedom Day and after more than a year since the beginning of the crackdown by the Nicaraguan government against the demonstrations launched on April 18, 2018, Amnesty International He warned about the "deplorable" situation of the country of Central America. "Courageous people who are dedicated to journalism and those who work in the media have been attacked while covering protests, being harbaded and persecuted for exercising their freedom of expression and doing their job" , said Lucia Pineda and Miguel Mora of the channel. 100% Newsthey have been arrested and continue in prison. Faced with this situation, more than 70 journalists and members of the media were forced to leave the country, "said Erika Guevara Rosas, director for the Americas of the international organization.

In addition, almost at the beginning of the demonstrations, on April 21, 2018, the report according to which a Nicaraguan journalist was killed Angel Gahona at Bluefields when he covered the live protests. Nine other journalists were injured on the same dates. Then, on May 30, during the March of the mothers, the facilities of 100% of news, in Managua, and Radio Darío, in Leon, they were attacked. December 13, the national police broke into the digital media facilities with violence The confidential, and television programs "Esta Noche" and "Esta Semana", all recognized for their critical work in investigative journalism. Likewise, cases of constant harbadment against journalists and media leaders such as: The press, Darío Radio, Radio my voice and Cbad 12, among others.

In Venezuela the situation is not more encouraging. Last week, various organizations warned against the censorship of information imposed by the regime of Nicolás Maduro restricting Internet services, digital media, radio and television in response to demonstrations against his government convened by the country's president, Juan Guaidó, and opposition leader Leopoldo López.

According to the Venezuelan Press and Society Institute (IPyS Venezuela) on April 30 19 cases of violation of the freedom of expression and digital rights in the country. Cantv, Movistar and Digitel users struggled to access Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Periscope, YouTube and Google. In addition, there was 11 arrests, robberies and attacks on journalists, armed groups and state security forces. The National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) has censored the signals of the channels CNN International and BBC World. So much CNN in Spanish as NTN24 of Colombia remain censored. The same situation lives Infobae from October 10, 2014.

Finally, Mexico continues to distinguish itself in all international rankings because of the high rates of violence and the way they affect freedom of the press. The most brutal manifestation of this problem, marked by the influence and power exerted by the drug trafficking sectors in the country, is manifested by the number of murders of journalists. Only in the last year since May 2018, nothing less than 16 journalists or reporters were killed in Mexico.

To this was added the abrupt budget cuts in the official advertising of Manuel López Obrador's government, added to this on January 1st the General Law on Social Communication (LGCS) entered into force, voted under the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto, which allows discretion in the exercise of public resources. This law had been criticized at the time because it did not provide sufficient controls over social communication, a situation that encourages the proselytactic use of public money. This law has not been repealed. As a result of this situation, organizations are demanding improvements to current or even defective protection mechanisms. Of the 790 people targeted by this mechanism, 292 (37%) are journalists. However, even the Undersecretary of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas, acknowledged the failures of the mechanism created in 2012 and baderted that it should be re-examined.