A hostile environment lived the press of El Salvador in 2021 with attacks, espionage and discrediting journalistic workwhich puts at risk fundamental rights in a democratic system such as freedom of the press and access to information, according to a report presented on Tuesday.
The document named “Freedom of the press and access to public information in El Salvador”prepared by the University Observatory of Human Rights (OUDH) of the Jesuit Central American University (UCA), identifies violations and difficulties experienced by journalists in 2021.
Attacks on journalists, progressive concealment of public information, espionage and intimidation are the main damages documented in said report.
Government officials and the Executive itself They are the ones indicated, according to the document, to commit the majority of attacks.
A protest against the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. AFP Photo
Attacks, a constant
The report indicates that the exercise of press freedom faced restrictions during 2021, “characterized by attacks on journalistic work, lack of access to public information and espionage“. The attack on journalists “has been a constant during the study period,” he says.
In the same way, the document points out, “the debunking journalists and the media that critically question government management”.
According to information from the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES), between 2019 -the year President Nayib Bukele took office- and 2021 421 attacks were recorded against the journalistic guild.
Between 2019 -the year President Nayib Bukele took office- and 2021, 421 attacks against journalists were recorded. AFP Photo
The Apes details, according to the report, that at the end of 2019 there were 77 cases of attacks on journalists, in 2020 125 violations were recorded and in 2021 the number of cases rose to 219. Thus, the percentage increase from 2019 to 2021 was 184%.
“This amalgamation of events shows that there are serious effects on freedom of the press,” the report underlines.
Researcher Carla Quinteros pointed out that El Salvador is in a “critical phase” because there is a “criminalization and persecution” of journalistic work, through “hate speech and stigma”, and digital attacks coming, mainly, from a “government apparatus”.
Access to public information
The report also highlights little or no access to public information, which directly affects the population “since they cannot access data or statistics that allow them to measure the reality in which they live,” said Quinteros.
“There is no access to information, therefore journalists cannot generate journalistic or investigative notes and the population is not really aware of what is happening in the country and cannot exercise their right to be informed,” he said.
Omar Serrano, vice-chancellor of Social Projection of the UCA, maintained that public information is “an instrument to promote citizen participation”.
“Simply, without information there is no effective citizen participation (…) access to public information also makes it possible to examine the government’s actions and constitutes a necessary basis for debate,” Serrano assured.
In addition, he stressed that access to information “plays an important role in reducing corruption.
The Observatory’s report forces us to conclude that democracy in El Salvador “is sick,” said the vice-rector for Social Projection.
“There is a hostile environment for journalists, is expressed in the permanent attack of government officials to the Salvadoran press and where messages of hate and stigmatization tend to be disseminated on social networks,” he added.
Source: EFE
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