The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, ordered the closure of the state news agency Télam a few days ago, a measure that seems to be the starting point to dismantle the public media network in Argentina, which has already been intervened. Before the Congress of his country, the president also stigmatized the press by pointing out it as the support of a “corrupt and putrid” system from which the media lives thanks to “the official guideline and overstuffed (bought) opinion formers who look to the another side or that they carefully choose who to accuse and who not.”
In Mexico, at the other end of the subregion, Leaks of journalists' personal data have been on the table this year. In January, an apparent hack into the Government's computer system revealed the personal data of more than 300 journalists who cover “La Mañanera”, the daily press conference offered by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
As if that were not enough, a month later, The president himself published the telephone number of Natalie Kitroeff, correspondent for The New York Times in that country. which, to make matters worse, is one of the most dangerous in the world to practice journalism. AMLO confessed that it was not a mistake and that he would do it again because, above the right to privacy and the protection of journalistic practice, there are “the moral authority and political authority” of the president.
And this week the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro accused the RCN and Caracol media of “dumbing down society” and wanting to discredit him. “When you open the station you find nothing but a brutalizer who is lulling Colombian society to sleep,” said the president during a public event.
Where there is fear there can be self-censorship and also censorship.
The strategy of discrediting power is neither new nor exclusive to Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. Other countries, such as Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela and, more recently, Bolivia and El Salvador, reflect how political power can hit the media by different means until they disappear.
León Hernández, professor at the Communication Research Center of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), does not hesitate to consider these actions as part of a political control strategy to generate fear, “because where there is fear there can be self-censorship and also censorship.” He warns that “there is a profound decay of democratic structures at the institutional level,” and this has allowed some leaders, regardless of their political tendency, “to have engaged in a strategy of discrediting the media and journalists, with the clear intention of generating a relativization of the truth, of changing the structures of trust and credibility of the media to affect the fabric of public opinion,” says Hernández.
The press freedom index presented each year by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that the subregion, far from improving its levels of freedom and protection of journalism, still faces serious problems. The 2023 report indicates that practically throughout Latin America there are situations that range from simple obstacles to really serious threats.. Only four countries recorded satisfactory levels of press freedom in Latin America and, curiously, one of them was Argentina.
Precisely, as soon as Milei announced the closure of Télam, Reporters Without Borders wasted no time to warn that the dismantling of public media poses a real risk to pluralism in Argentina. “It is a hard blow to journalism and the right to information. We ask that this brutal decision be suspended,” said Artur Romeu, director of the RSF Office in Latin America, in a statement published a few days ago.
In the southern nation, the measure itself has not been surprising, but rather its virulence. Milei had threats against the public information system and attacks against the press as a key part of his repertoire. since the electoral campaign, something that he has already maintained in power. The president of the Argentine Journalism Forum (Fopea), Paula Moreno, acknowledges that she, above all, was shocked by how quickly the Government's agenda against the media has progressed.
He added that, in addition, they have seen how the president's attacks on journalists—sometimes with first and last name— They have caused attacks, especially on the networks. For this reason, he is especially concerned that official insults transcend into “unthinkable situations of violence” for journalists, as well as self-censorship and even censorship. Even Moreno believes that Milei himself does not appreciate the scope that calling journalists liars or bought can have.
“Due to the role we play in the democratic process, journalism deserves respect, as much as our democracy. From that point of view, the cataloging of overstuffed journalists or liars seems very serious to us, like all generalizations. There is no way to counteract what the president says because the relationship is asymmetrical,” Moreno emphasized.
“Although violence has been dragging on from previous governments, these types of speeches do not help to reduce it”
But if it rains in Argentina, in Mexico there is a storm. There, the attacks and official leaks take on an even more serious connotation, since it is already one of the most dangerous countries in the world to practice the profession, with a balance of 163 journalists murdered and 32 disappearances between the years 2000 and 2023. in accordance with Article 19, the international organization defending freedom of expression. The territorial control exercised by drug trafficking in several regions, in addition to its infiltration into public structures, has caused crimes against press workers to go unpunished. That's why, The smear campaigns against the press carried out by AMLO since the Mexican presidency put even more pressure on a very complicated situation.
In this regard, Pedro Cárdenas, Protection and Defense officer of Article 19 Mexico, said that they have observed that Governments abuse the public forum to stigmatize critical journalists whom they classify as adversaries or enemies, which contributes to the climate of violence. “Although violence has been carried over from previous governments, these types of speeches do not help to reduce it and, on the contrary, generate a cascade effect where now not only the Presidency, but also local authorities and even private actors, use these speeches to “justify their violence against the press, saying that they are being paid by some political opposition,” he said.
Cárdenas assured that, for this reason, in recent years the average of violence has remained the same because Governments have not generated comprehensive public policies to prevent violence against the press and protect journalists. But, in addition, Cárdenas warned about the leaks of journalists' data and the fact that AMLO justified that his political and moral authority was above Mexican legislation regarding the protection of personal data.
The state of censorship
Other countries in the region such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have gone much further in terms of attacks and violations of freedom of expression and of the press. These authoritarian governments usually surround themselves with a legal shield against journalism because it allows judicial persecution. In the middle of last year, Cuba achieved something incredible: reinforcing more than 60 years of legal framework against the press with the Social Communication Law, which gives the Government even broader powers than those already existing to control or close independent media.
In Venezuela, since its beginnings, President Hugo Chávez insistently accused the media of having allied himself with the opponents and of being enemies of his revolution. In 2001, the Content Law, later converted into the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television (Resorte), served as the legal basis to justify the closure of media.
With administrative decisions issued by telecommunications regulators, The Chávez government closed dozens of television channels and radio stations, including the television station RCTV, in 2007. Since 2003, almost 300 radio stations have stopped operating by orders of Chavismo.
And the current president Nicolás Maduro has not lowered his tone: groups close to Chavismo have bought independent media, while the government blocks digital media and foreign television channels. The most recent case is that of the German station DW, which can no longer be seen on Venezuelan television due to government orders. after he issued a report in which he criticized Maduro's management.
In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega's regime has also deployed hate speech against the press that It has included arrests, banishments and forced exiles, as well as censorship, media closures and confiscations. The Government has not hesitated to harshly insult journalists, whom it has described as servants, slaves, freeloaders, sell-outs and liars. Since 2018, when protests broke out that radicalized the Government, some 1,200 attacks against the press have been recorded.
Hernández, from UCAB, indicates that These smear campaigns have a clear intention: to destroy the basis of credibility of the media by generating a polarized society. in which only extremes matter. And the danger of this, in the opinion of the communicator, is that the space of social understanding is broken.
Bolivia, since the successive presidencies of Evo Morales, has also experienced a smear campaign against the media that did not stop in the current administration of President Luis Arce. Official tactics have ranged from uttering insults to reducing state advertising as a mechanism for political pressure. The Government even produced a documentary titled “The Cartel of Lies”, as they call the media from those in power. And not everyone is able to endure something like this. In the middle of last year, the Página Siete newspaper had to close its operations after a cut in state advertising caused a severe economic hardship from which it could not recover.
And more recently, in El SalvadorPresident Nayib Bukele has insulted journalists and has accused the media of being his enemies for the critical reports they have published. about his government's agreements with the gangs. As a concrete measure, it approved a reform of the Penal Code that establishes prison sentences of up to 15 years for journalists who publish information produced by gangs and that could generate panic or anxiety in the population.
The serious thing about discredit campaigns is not only that they cause a reduction in freedoms, but also a continuous confrontation between power and the media, which leads to less social coexistence. In this way, several Latin American governments that have already crossed the limits of authoritarianism, consolidate themselves as the owners of the absolute truth, to the point of considering that those who do not follow their dictates are traitors to the country. And others, who have not reached those extremes, seem willing to play with fire. Because without free journalism there cannot be even a semblance of democracy.
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