The challenge of what to do in the face of misinformation: "Journalism must be differentiated from other businesses"

The great dangers of misinformation have been the subject of debate this Wednesday by different journalism professionals in a conference organized by Workers’ Commissions (CCOO). I also join members of the union, all of them have tried to contribute ideas to be able to face the problems of lying or manipulation in the media or pseudomedia, which are issues that are also of increasing concern to citizens.

“We have to differentiate what journalism is from what other businesses with other intentions and interests are,” highlighted Jesús Maraña, director of infoLibre, in the last talk in which he was accompanied by Magda Bandera, director of La Marea, Virginia Alonso, director of Público and Ignacio Escolar, director of elDiario.es. In the conversation they have addressed the different options to improve and, above all, determine “what the media are.”

Escolar pointed out the importance of knowing how to categorize what a newspaper is. “Before we knew if a newspaper was sports, general, political… Now it is increasingly difficult. In the case of television and radio it is clearer because the barrier, although it has been blurred, is still evident, but with the written press all control has been lost,” he pointed out.

The regulation of newspapers has been another of the axes that has been the protagonist of the debate in which conflicting but constructive positions have been seen. Alonso distrusted the regulation that could be made from public positions. “We are lucky that now we theoretically have a progressive Government, but as soon as there is an alternation, the danger that regulation can pose to the right to information is important,” he explained to the rest of the speakers and those present. Maraña, on the other hand, believed that “the criteria are more important than who manages them” and is committed to the consolidation of regulation and self-regulation of the media.

Like the director of infoLibre Escolar stated that “regulation must be protected and guaranteed so that if someone wants to use it, there are concrete measures to prevent this from happening.” Furthermore, the director of elDiario.es recalled that, at this time, “being a medium with a large audience does not guarantee the right to information.” “Look on Google to see what news gives the newspapers the most audience, search for ‘how to write going or going’ and you will see the first options that are from media that get a significant percentage of the audience from that news,” he pointed out.

Audience measurement entered the scene as another of the pillars to understand what is happening in the press and on which the public financing received by the most read newspapers largely depends. On the other hand, the director of La Marea He gave importance to journalists appropriating language again: “A lie is a lie and manipulation is manipulation, let’s stop telling hoaxes, fake news or words that distance us from the majority of citizens,” he stated, while at the same time making self-criticism, assuring that “on this issue we must start at our homes and do everything in the appropriate way.”

The reasoning and positions surrounding the journalistic profession have been presented for more than an hour at the CCOO house in which, in addition to criticism of the national situation, they have also reflected on European regulations, the panorama they live in other countries and the dangers of threats from different far-right groups suffered by the editors of the newspapers present, politicians and personalities of all kinds, such as cultural or associative ones.

“No regulation will serve to end misinformation, lies or manipulation. We must be aware of this as well, but just as it will not be with drugs or prostitution, but we must move forward so that the national and international journalistic landscape is much less hostile and guarantee, which is ultimately what we are here for, the right to the information that all citizens have”, concluded Ignacio Escolar.

The day was closed by Empar Pablo Martínez, communication secretary of CCOO, who concluded the talks titled “The machinery of misinformation” and who has tried, in addition to expressing critical positions, to give hope in a profession that, in addition to harmful means for democracy, there are also others that are sustained by the support of their readers, subscribers and commitment to the right to information.