The SIP, which celebrated its meeting virtually, and knew the conclusions of several missions that in the last six months have closely analyzed the situation of several countries, including Guatemala.
“In every corner of the hemisphere we see how journalists and media face a hostile reality: from physical violence to judicial harassment, from economic censorship to public stigmatization,” said José Roberto Dutriz, president of the SIP during the opening of the meeting.
The president of the SIP also pointed to “the authoritarian governments and weakened democracies” of resorting to repressive tactics to “silence independent voices.”
According to the data collected by the SIP, at least 14 cases of the 24 countries monitored in the region have been collected in the last semester, “which implies that in more than half of the continent the denigration to the press is the usual practice of the populist rulers of the left and right.”
The SIP also identifies harmful practices to the journalistic exercise of “lower rank officials, opposition leaders and trolls in social networks”, all with the objective of “undermining the credibility of journalists and media that reveal acts of public interest.”
The SIP also expressed concern about violence against journalists.
Regarding the violent deaths of journalists, the SIP concluded that “a high level of impunity prevails from the disinterest of revealing who or who is behind these attacks.”
The SIP explains that the adverse climate that has been generalized in many countries that belong to society is due to “an institutional deterioration in much of the continent” that results in “the shortage or absence of guarantees for the exercise of free journalism.”
The consequences for citizens of harassment and harassment to the informative media, according to the SIP, is that it is prevented that “a plural and broad citizen debate”.
In addition, there are more and more limitations for access to public information “practically in all the countries of the Americas.”
“Even the most solid democracies are suffering deterioration,” said Costa Rica’s former president Laura Chinchilla, one of the panelists invited in the debate days of the SIP meeting.
Catalina Botero, former reference of freedom of expression of the Inter -American Commission on Human Rights, also participated as a panelist and raised an initiative to generate a social network of public interest, to avoid discretionary management large platforms that suffer from transparency and spread misinformation. “The Eco cameras reward the barr of the neighborhood,” he warned.
Dutriz concluded that “there is no free journalism without viable means”, while highlighting the work that the SIP has been carrying out with the support of Google News Initiative in the framework of the digital income accelerator.
“This initiative, in its second phase, has already benefited dozens in Latin America, offering training, mentoring and practical tools to strengthen business models, diversify income and take better advantage of opportunities in the digital environment,” he added.
On the last day, which concluded yesterday, Carlos Jornet, president of the SIP Press and Information Commission, reflected on threats to journalism and warned that “if we do not fight against misinformation and intolerance, misinformation and intolerance they will end journalism, with democracy, with the well -being of our societies.”
The case of Guatemala
A special mission of the SIP was in Guatemala to know the conditions in which journalism is done and the conclusions were known and analyzed within the framework of the half -year meeting.
Among the conclusions, the report indicates that “journalism continued to suffer attacks and persecution from the Public Ministry”, highlighting as the most emblematic example of the journalist José Rubén Zamora, which after having been released, was again imprisoned on March 10 by court order.
“These actions demonstrate the power of corruption networks that prevent the journalist from defending himself legally and appropriately,” said the report known to the SIP, which adds to other pronouncements that have been at the time for the case, by the Association of Journalists of Guatemala (APG).
The mission also highlighted the attempt, which was finally rejected by the Constitutional Court, which sought to prevent journalists and opinion columnists from being investigated for obstruction of justice for comments and notes related to the Zamora process.
In addition, the case of the journalist Juan Luis Font was known, who remains in exile since 2023 and with a arrest warrant since last year, requested by prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche who accuses him of collusion and criminal bribery, for a complaint filed by former Communications Minister Alejandro Sinibaldi, accused of acts of corruption during the Otto Pérez Molina government.
Among other cases that knew the SIP mission that Guatemala visited are several aggressions against journalists by public officials, especially correspondents who work in the province.
“Local and national media had difficulties before the sources of the mayorships to obtain information or are denied access to data, accusing them of being paid by sectors of the political opposition,” indicates in the report of the mission in Guatemala.
The visit report highlights the murder of the journalist Ismael Alonzo González, last March 21, in the Santa Fe village, Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango and the disappearance of Milton Polanco, on February 7 in Jutiapa.