IAPA denounced the fact that the pressure exerted by some governments on the media is exacerbating their economic problems

"The situation of the industry is complex and is aggravated by the economic asphyxia exerted by schemes such as those of Nicolás Maduro, Daniel Ortega, Miguel Diaz-Canel and Evo Morales ", said the president of the Inter-American Press Association (SIP), Colombian María Elvira Domínguez Lloreda.

The newspaper publisher The country, from Cali (Colombia), opened the mid-year meeting of IAPA this Friday, which will be held for three days in the Caribbean in Cartagena de Indias. At the center of his presentation, he badyzed the economic crisis in the media, which he described as "profound and difficult to solve".

Although exemptions have already been granted in some countries of the continent to find respite, the importance of "healthy and independent" media is currently better understood than ever.

This interpretation, Dominguez said, "took a deep It was obvious that social networks or large digital platforms, through which information is distributed, often without filter or rigor, or with the intention of disseminating false or false information, does not replace the vital role of free journalism.

Although for the president of SIP, it is clear that social networks and more and more horizontal communication with communities can generate "progress for humanity", deemed necessary to understand that "it will always be a complementary work to professional journalism", which "can never be abandoned".

In his speech, Dominguez also pointed out that the world is today faced with the dilemma that On the one hand, independent media and journalists are indispensable in social and democratic constructionbut on the other hand, they lose space in front of the power of "big middlemen".

As a result, he explained, "the public is becoming elusive and administrative difficulties are forcing us to reduce operations, and that's where the daily struggle to maintain the quality of information begins."

To the above is added the Some leaders of American countries, who should defend the freedom of the press, "persist in defamation campaigns to characterize the media as enemies of the people, opponents, bourgeois and imperialists, with the aim of diverting attention from important issues and removing their credibility ", he concluded.

The three days of activities in Cartagena SIP, which promote the freedom of press and expression in the Americas, have the merit participation of political authorities such as the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagroand the president of Colombia, Iván Duque.

José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for the Americas, also participated alongside Almagro, the director of the Caracas El Nacional newspaper, Miguel Henrique Otero, and the director of Migración Colombia, Christian Krüger. panel "Venezuela without chavismo: new opportunity for the hemisphere".