Journalists' associations reject that politicians decide "what questions can be asked" after the incidents with Vox and Podemos

Troubled week for parliamentary journalism in Congress after two incidents involving Vox and United We Can for their discomfort with two questions posed by two accredited editors in the Chamber.

confronted a journalist in the corridor and

refused to answer a question in the press room, arguing that the person who raised it was not a "real journalist."

This has provoked the reaction of the

, the

and the

, which in a joint statement made public this Friday have rejected " emphatically "the pretensions of some politicians to decide" what questions a journalist can ask them, as was made clear this week in the Congress of Deputies. "

"This claim is a clear and intolerable violation of the free exercise of journalism, one of the pillars of our democratic system. Journalists are the ones who ask sources and they can refuse to answer, but never decide who can ask them and what questions can make them ", the statement emphasizes.

The journalists 'associations recall that the Code of Ethics recognizes that politicians have the right "not to provide information, nor to answer the questions that are put to them, without prejudice to the professional duty to attend to the citizens' right to information."

However, it is noted at the same time that for the sake of "information transparency", public administrations and their representatives "have the obligation to render accounts of those decisions and activities that affect the citizenry."

One of those ways to accomplish that in a democracy is through journalists' questions.

"Any obstacle to this function of journalists is a violation of freedom of information," he says.

"Politicians also do not decide who is a journalist and who is not, especially when the journalist is duly accredited to carry out his work," the statement said, implicitly referring to the fact that the two editors affected by the attitude of Vox and United We Can were accredited to exercise their professional work in Congress.

Journalists also have their obligations.

And the statement reminds us, as it is to "maintain responsible conduct as regards the ethics and deontology of the information. In that sense, they must contrast the sources and give the affected person the opportunity to offer their own version of the information. facts".

"The three associations have verified that a trend is advancing in the profession that seeks to promote confrontation between professionals and between the media. We warn that this conduct only benefits those who seek to weaken journalism for spurious purposes, so we urge that it cease this type of behavior and, on the contrary, mutual respect is imposed as the basis of professional relationships, "the statement concludes.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

See links of interest

• La Palma volcano

• Last News

• Home THE WORLD TODAY

• Work calendar

• Fact checking

• Series

• Surne Bilbao Basket - Casademont Zaragoza

• Granada CF - Real Sociedad

• Osasuna - Real Betis

• Lenovo Tenerife - Unicaja

• Cádiz - Barcelona, ​​live