2023-08-04 21:28:30
Colombia
During the first year of Gustavo Petro’s government, one of the most questioned facts has been his relationship with the media. On multiple occasions, the head of state assured on his social networks that he was facing a true disinformation campaign.
Given this, for Jonathan Bock, director of the Foundation for Press Freedom, President Petro’s relationship with the media has been tense and has had a negative impact in terms of press freedom.
“The first is that the president has categorized a sector of the media that he has called the establishment media and has labeled them as opponents of his government, opponents of change, who are not in tune with his government’s proposals.” .
According to Bock, the president has also singled out journalists or media outlets constantly when referring to their publications.
“This on some occasions with the intention of correcting some information, but in most cases falling into generalities, even in the messages that have been more serious and that have generated the greatest concern in terms of press freedom, because it is in those where he blames the media for some serious attitude within the State.”
Similarly, for the political analyst Gabriel Cifuentes, both the president and members of the government have even accused the press of creating narratives against the government and of being ungenerous in the face of the progress or successes that this administration has had.
“Although there is an obligation within the Constitution for the media to report objectively and truthfully, given the social role and the important social function they fulfill, it is also true that there is reinforced protection for freedom of the press and freedom of expression. expression”.
Likewise, according to Carlos Arias, a political analyst, the centralization of information distanced President Petro’s relationship, which should have been much more fluid with the media.
“The use of ‘Twittercracy’ and the misunderstanding of how the different agendas are managed and affected, and the overlapping of his ego and an overrepresentation of himself and his communication power, not only generated a distance because he did not allowed in-depth interviews to be carried out, but rather only unidirectional communication began to be made from social networks and specifically not the social networks of the institutionality, which are the traditional channels of the national government and formal from a transversal strategy with all entities and ministries, but a strategy that depended solely and exclusively on the image of the president and the president’s Twitter”.
According to FLIP, during the month of January alone, the president posted at least 34 tweets on his Twitter account in which he mentioned nine media outlets.
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