“Five, four, three… Good morning to all of Ourense. “We are at the first information conference to replace the press conferences.” The mayor of Ourense, Gonzalo Pérez Jácome, thus started this Tuesday the new format of “direct” communication with citizens. A live broadcast through the YouTube channel of his own local television, Auria TV, instead of the usual appearance before journalists who, in his opinion, “only served to adulterate the information.” “The truth does not need intermediaries,” he assured, before giving the number of WhatsApp to which viewers could direct their questions.
Jácome, leader of the populist formation Democracia Ourensana, broadcast from the plenary hall of the city council, accompanied by the Councilor for Celebrations, Noa Rouco. The opening shot allowed us to see that both were flanked by two enormous Nutcrackers – “the Milli Vanilli”, as the councilor called them – and behind a table on which the posters with the Christmas programming had been displayed. Because that was the “monotheme” of this first information conference, although before starting to break it down, it was time to justify the format.
The change, according to the mayor, was nothing more than a consequence of “the media manipulation that devastates the world and that in Ourense acquires a degree of despotism never seen before”, for which he blamed the “interference” of the administrations “by all the media that are subsidized and have become a true political power, or at least that is what some try, even though they do not have viewers, listeners or readers.”
Despite this portrayal, “many politicians do give these media a certain credibility,” which makes them “real weapons where the truth does not matter.” Jácome expressed his conviction that this “adulteration” of the information would also affect his new round of information, “but you will always have this on the networks to compare what we said and the truth (sic). No matter how much they manipulate, they can always come here to compare the original information.”
“The truth does not need intermediaries and that is why what we do is address citizens directly.” The mayor repeated on several occasions the number of WhatsApp to which viewers could send their questions. “The majority are going to see it on a delayed basis and it no longer makes sense to ask questions, but while we are live you can ask them at…”. 24 hours after broadcast, the video has accumulated 753 views on YouTube.
The broadcast lasted just over 20 minutes and, in it, viewers were interested in the schedules of the activities or if they would be free. “The people who ask the questions are not very attentive to the press conference, they ask things that we have already said,” Jácome ironized, switching to Galician. “In the next one we have to be more attentive.” It will have to be done. The next information conference, before the end of the year, will be “a strictly political issue.” Although, this time, it wasn’t all Christmas either: the mayor did not miss the opportunity to slip that, in a couple of weeks, a book will be presented “that will be news throughout Ourense because it was written here by yours truly.”
Jácome’s decision to suspend the press conferences has received the “rejection” of the Colexio de Xornalistas de Galicia, which has reminded him that it is the questions of the informants who “monitor the communication of political officials so that what reaches the citizenship is information and not propaganda.”
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