• Moncloa The Government places as "the last blow of Trump" the report that denounces the "attack" to the press

  • US report denounces the "attack" on the Spanish government press

The

White House

State Department report

that points to "verbal attacks by high-ranking officials" of the Spanish Government "against certain media and specific journalists" has stirred up the already persistent debate on the limits of press freedom and political pressures.

A debate in which this Wednesday members of the Executive fully entered and to which different press associations consulted by EL MUNDO also contribute their vision.

While the vicepr

is first president,

Carmen Calvo

, denied that the document was "neither a report nor a reprimand" and placed it as

the "last blow of the Trump Administration"

, the journalists' associations show no doubts.

"It is a clear call to attention to the Government, to the politicians and to the parties it cites," says Nemesio Rodríguez, president of the

Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain

(

FAPE

).

Those politicians, according to the White House report, are the Prime Minister,

Pedro Sanchez

;

the former vice president,

Pablo Iglesias

;

the spokesperson for Podemos,

Pablo Echenique

, and the political party

Vox

.

"The attacks of populisms against the media and journalists have a single purpose: to discredit the press in order to demolish its function of counter-power and drag democracy itself with it", highlights the president of

Reporters Without Borders

,

Alfonso Armada

.

The complaints of the APM

In the same line they are shown from the

Madrid Press Association

(

APM

) where they indicate that the US warning delves into "the same circumstances" that have been "denounced" since their association.

"The Government increasingly accepts criticism worse and shows for some time to this part a desire to control everything by taking advantage of the pandemic.

It seems that instead of being the media who control the government and the parties, it has to be the other way around, "says its spokesperson.

Luis Ayllon

.

"Let's hope that the Government, parties and politicians take note and remove vetoes and obstacles, such as the accusations, which try to prevent journalists from exercising a critical and independent control of the powers," FAPE reports on a point on which it places special emphasis. the State Department report.

The governing body

Tony blinken

In this case, it points to former vice president Pablo Iglesias after "threatening a journalist

with jail

for publishing compromised information ”in an intervention on March 1.

But also the president, Pedro Sánchez, for accusing "the conservative press" of "shaking up society" and the spokesman for Podemos, Pablo Echenique, for doubting the "professionalism of a television presenter" -

Vicente Valles

- via Twitter.

An army of trolls

And it is precisely towards the use of social networks that the APM points to as a basis for pointing out journalists.

«Populisms tend to throw the bait because they know that there are many people who are going to harass the journalist.

You don't attack him directly but you try to get the crowd to force him to censor himself and limit his information, ”Ayllón remarks.

"All forms of nationalism and populism share a vision and a strategy aimed at undermining trust in the press, bypassing their work of asking the questions that matter to citizens, and devoting enormous amounts of energy to making enemies of journalists and the media." They add from Reporters Without Borders.

The organization cites

Trump

in

USA

, to

Bolsonaro

in

Brazil

and Vox and Podemos in Spain for "their armies of trolls", the veto of journalists "who exclude from their actions" in the case of the radical right-wing formation because "they are annoying" or the creation of "alleged means to charge against journalists »as

The last hour

.

All of them, according to Armada, pose "a danger to free information" as well as "obstacles to reporters who cover the arrival of immigrants or attacks on demonstrations."

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