Given the criticisms that have been made Gustavo Petro to the coverage that some media have given to events, such as the march of the members of the Public Force, the president of the Foundation for the Freedom of the Press (FLIP), Jonathan Bock, He said that Colombia could be in a transition period that would mark a before and after for press freedom.
“We are in a situation that could mark a turning point with implications that could be really risky in terms of press freedom. What has happened in recent weeks with the president’s constant messages through social networks, but also in his speeches in the public square, in his constant interventions in which he talks about a journalistic story against his government, making generalizations and wanting to install the imaginary that there is a unified and homogeneous body of the journalism against you, It has been exemplified very well in specific messages against journalists and the media,” he said on the morning of Friday, May 12, to the microphones of Snail Radio Flip President Jonathan Bock.
He warned, words more words less, that the Executive is not only disregarding the rules of the game established in the Political Constitution of Colombiathe Constitutional Court and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but rather is seeking to dictate to the media the agenda of what should be covered and how, which he described as “inadmissible.”
“All of this creates a very hostile environment for journalistic practice. It is that, when analyzing specific messages like the ones he made against Caracol Televisión, where he is seeking to intimidate or, better still, mark what should be the agenda that should be covered by the media, it is really unacceptable. The president is seeking to install a debate that does not give rise to it,” added the president of Flip, who said that the president, like any other citizen, can request a rectification, there are other tools such as guardianship and civil and criminal actions when that have to climb
“He is not the person called to be the judge of the truth or the judge of the media. He has some clear rules of the game that are the ones he defined the Political constitutionthe Constitutional court and inter-American standards for the defense of press freedom from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which say that public officials cannot have that role, have limited freedom of expression and they must guarantee the journalistic exercise in a plural and broad way and that is not happening”he warned.
Additionally, President Bock said that this is especially worrying in a country like Colombia, where there is a marked history of violence against journalists and there are spikes in some specific departments, where there are no adequate conditions to practice journalism.
This was a comment he made calling attention to the fact that it has not only been President Petro who has promoted this discourse, but that it has also been transferred to the local and departmental level, where mayors and governors are sending stigmatizing messages against of the journalists.
“We have seen them calling them microphone hitmen, telling them that they have political interests, that they are extortionists, and all kinds of messages to seek to discredit them, so that the publications they make do not have as much weight in front of public opinion and that, ultimately, is one of the indirect effects of the discourse that is being promoted from the Narino Palace”, he pointed out.
And he concluded that there are world examples that have shown the disastrous results of this hate speech against the media in the regions, such as during the presidency of Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and, more recently, Amlo in Mexico. .
