Moderator: Mariana Diaz Vasquez, Chile-Italia
Speakers: Liliana Ortiz (México); Grecia Aguilera (Guatemala); Jenny Perez (Chile-Alemania); Ines Llambías (Cile); Alba Kepi (Albania-Italia); Vera Shcherbakova (Rusia-Italia)
The panel on press freedom aimed to delve into the main obstacles that journalists encounter in different scenarios: from a country with few guarantees of safety for reporters, to a war context. We also discussed the role of the European media in the fight for press freedom.
In particular, from Mexico we have the testimony of Liliana Ortiz: “For many years now, the country has been facing a complex situation for the practice of journalism, not only because governments have silenced many voices and pens, but also because organised crime has done the same. Journalists are becoming increasingly uncomfortable for them, but at the end of the day that is what the profession is all about: being uncomfortable in questioning, investigating and publishing”.
Journalist and writer, Grecia Aguilera (Guatemala), commented: “I think that freedom of expression is a right that comes with human beings from the beginning of their lives, it is part of their subsistence and must be respected as such and is strictly and intimately related to freedom of the press.
The communications expert, Inés Llambías, led us to reflect on the role of the media in controlling the pandemic: “Scientific research, some of which we will share today, has established that our work is and will always be an expression of a team, communicators and scientists united to guide the community, in a timely manner, to teach, to prepare, to alert, with total transparency and urgency”.
Jenny Pérez, a journalist with a distinguished career in Chilean and German television, spoke in depth about the European media and the great contribution they can and should make to the fight for press freedom in the world. In her lecture, she developed the role of international media in the face of the global decline in freedom of the press and expression. A look at the German in the pandemic and in coverage of the Ukraine war in Latin America: “freedom versus censorship, tolerance versus stigmatization”.
Together with Alba Kepi, Italian correspondent for the Albanian television station RTV Ora, we discussed how the work of journalists changed during the pandemic: “Scientific knowledge, transparency, improvisation, practicality, emotionality, creativity, exclusivity, work pressure…these are some of the key words in the work of journalists put to the test during the global pandemic”.
We concluded our debate with journalist and director of the Italian branch of the Russian news agency TASS, Vera Shcherbakova, who gave an in-depth analysis of truth in relation to the ongoing war in Ukraine: “Truth in journalism hardly exists today. One can rightly say that everyone has his own. The same events can be presented, albeit with all sincerity and personal honesty, in a completely different way. This is particularly noticeable now in Ukraine, where the narrative is completely compromised by all parties involved”.