The Difficult Task of Journalism: Fighting Against Repression
Freedom of expression is one of the most important issues to address at the current moment in which we live, either as a right or as a myth. While it is true that through digital platforms we can publish our opinions without censorship, this is not always the case.
For people who work in one way or another in the field of social communication, being able to inform and disseminate their opinions for the reading public is a very important reward, that is why the fact of feeling repressed in some way, for some political, moral or of personal interests, often leads to frustration.
The first example is set in Venezuela, a country that is going through a delicate political-economic moment, with a government that takes hold in very "peculiar" ways in power and in which information is totally biased. Political polarization leads to the existence of two informative currents: the followers of the government, which disseminates information plainly in favor and without fissures of self-criticism, in many cases preventing the people from analyzing the situation at their own discretion; in opposition to the current political mandate, those who write, inform and transmit news from rage and discontent for not being in power, based on what they would do if they could have the electoral advantage.
What I mean by this is that hardly a journalist can be objective in his opinion without fearing censorship, or worse, psychological and physical intimidation in extreme cases. Data from the NGO Espacio Público specify that more than 500 radio stations and approximately 100 newspapers of minor circulation have closed due to problems of freedom of expression. Data that for someone excited by journalism have the effect of a slap in the face of their work.
The journalistic career has always been difficult through the years, the repression of writing is not new. Not only from the political point of view but morally, and is that our beliefs and the stigmas created by society also interfere in the good journalistic exercise. Cases such as the one that the Washington Post lived when it dared to publish confidential documents of the US government, which transcended in a series of demands and fights between the government and the news sector that culminated in a union of several US newspapers to save dignity. informative and defend the 1 North American amendment.
Controversial cases such as the one that the Boston Globe undertook in 2001 when the newspaper's research section was caught up in a diatribe in addressing the sexual abuse of children by priests throughout Massachusetts. A small wording against one of the most influential organizations in society such as the Catholic Church is the clearest act of courage at the level of freedom of expression and opinion, for something gained the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, for the courage to face such organization, by the great daring to break the taboos of society, by force to speak of what nobody speaks, even knowing what happens.
Things like this are what make me think that the art of journalism is one of the most important in our society. It includes adrenaline, tenacity, truthfulness, morals and ethics, all from the letters and words that come from a thinking mind interested in seeing the invisible, an imagination that dreams of readers' faces when they see their article and impact on a small sector of the population, however small it may be, fulfills the objective of a journalist, taking information to the public, regardless of rulers, important societies or moral precepts that have already expired, always respecting the ethics and morals of the writer and the reader.
See you later, thanks for reading.