“I am convinced that for the third time in half a century, we will experience the triumph of information over concealment”

Spanish democracy lives for the third time in half a century a “monumental attempt” to cover up serious corruption plotsin which a “head of government” refuses to assume his responsibilities and presents his resignation.

Despite this, Pedro J. Ramírez, executive president and director of EL ESPAÑOL, is convinced that “for the third time we will experience the triumph of information over concealment“. Further proof of the fundamental role that a free and pluralist press plays in guaranteeing an open society and a strong democracy.

Ramírez was responsible for closing the conference cycle Freedom in the 21st century organized by EL ESPAÑOL and the Camilo José Cela University (UCJC), on the occasion of their 10th and 25th anniversaries, respectively.

Ten presentations in which ten great personalities from different fields reflected on freedom in areas such as culture, economics, business, education, technology or thought.

The executive president and director of EL ESPAÑOL cited during his conference a phrase from Isaiah Berlin useful for all the interviews that took place at the UCJC headquarters in recent weeks, but especially for those related to the press: “Freedom was necessary to make freedom possible.”

“Live to live. Be free to be free. To satisfy the public’s right to know what concerns them. Helping citizens make informed decisions,” he stressed.

Ramírez commented in his speech his 45 years as newspaper editor and recalled several episodes that reflect the importance of press freedom in democracies and how, from political power, attempts were made to stop media that displayed a critical position.

45 years old

The 1981 coup d’état, the assassinations of the ETA terrorist group, the GAL plot and its connection with the González government, the Filesa case, the Ibercorp case, the case of the irregular distribution of reserved funds, the 11-M attack, the Bárcenas case… are just some of the examples mentioned by Pedro J.

During these years he remembered, He was held in a cell for a few hours. after failing to respond to a court summons for a “personal whim” of a judgeas he himself admitted. A sex video in which he appears was also released following a montage concocted by a personal assistant of Felipe González.

In addition, twice a governmentone with González as president and another with Mariano Rajoy (and in both cases with the participation of Juan Carlos I) he got him fired from his position as director. First of Journal 16, half of what he was resurrected, and after The world, newspaper he founded.

However, he pointed out that a few months after this second dismissal, “Jonah rose from the belly of the whale, transformed into a lion and EL ESPAÑOL began to roar, publish again exclusives on the corruption of each other“.

“When we began to reveal those who affected Sánchez, we were included in the fascistosphere and were punished with the removal of virtually all institutional advertising“, he added.

Over the years, Ramírez was able to verify that press freedom in the 21st century “is subject to the same threats as press freedom in the 20th century”. And this is demonstrated by the fact that many of the words he wrote in a book published in 1980 are still valid today to illustrate the situation of the press.

Threats

In this pocket book entitled Press and freedom (which he physically showed during the conference), Pedro J. pointed out that Wherever there is free speech, there will be those who try to abuse it. or how important the right to privacy or the right to a fair trial is.

He also emphasized that Wherever a free press is detected, “a vibrant democratic system” always appears, and that “the level of violation of press freedom is a good thermometer of the violation of other freedoms.”

In the book, he also opposes those who “want to perpetuate a closed unionism based on an official conception of journalism” or force a journalist to reveal his sources. Then he declared that “the best press law is no press law because it is enough to subject the information activity to the criminal, civil and commercial codes.”

All of this is perfectly applicable today. “Only information technology has changed“said Ramírez, who warned that They are “a double-edged sword”. “This implies the possibility of being better informed and the risk of being less informed, or even more misinformed,” he detailed.

Technology

The director of EL ESPAÑOL highlighted that “The jaws of power are wider than ever, but they are bigger than ever” and underlined that “the Internet era has given rise to an increasingly heterogeneous and uncontrollable proliferation of actors”.

According to him, The big problem with the Internet is “the lack of regulation at the national and international levels.” content aggregation and distribution platforms”. A legal void which exempts them from any responsibility when they reproduce criminal content and promotes the anonymity of their authors.

Indeed, he declared that it would be enough for all owners of social networks to have the legal obligation to provide the justice system, within a minimum period of time, with the identity of any user accused of defamation or slander or prosecuted for insulting the honor of others, so that “A lot of the trash that has turned some of these networks into real landfills will start to disappear.”

On the other hand, he also pointed out that this intention to eradicate extremism with which some justify the need for legal reforms or judicial actions to close the media “is nothing other an alibi to try to intimidate critical media and repress or at least discredit whistleblowing journalism.

“But even if this were not the case, it is time to emphasize that what characterizes an open society and a strong democracy is the ability to accept and protect dissent, no matter how radical it may be“, he defended himself.

Ramírez emphasized that in just a decade, the sector has experienced three strong shocks which have cumulatively and disruptively changed the content distribution system: the widespread use of the Internet; the acceleration of digital firsthand in hand with cell phones and with the help of the pandemic, and now the emergence of Artificial Intelligence.

Competitive collaboration

All this has three effects: the convergence of audiovisual formats with literary formats and their fusion into new stories; multichannel, which requires us to replace the traditional follow the leader for him follow the readerAnd the transition from the concept of competition to that of competitive collaboration.

This concept is very well understood with the example that Cruz Sanchez de Laravice-president of EL ESPAÑOL, repeats after hearing it for the first time since Encarna Samitier: If you have a bar, the most important thing is not that you sell more than the one across the street, but that as many people as possible come to the bar streets.

“Fortunately, in Spain, the streets of bars are quite full, even if the open web transfers its clientele to those of social networks,” added Pedro J. Ramírez. And these “bars” are those which, given the current cases of corruption, Every hour they offer something new which opens up new avenues of investigation and denounces others.

“Perhaps the intensity of these experiences and especially the anxiety to quickly reach an outcome that will allow our country to overcome this dangerous and traumatic stage, “prevents us from assessing the ultimate utility of what we do as journalists.”he remarked.

Ramírez began his lecture by mentioning a short story published in 1979 by the Washington Post about an advisor to the president opened his fly in front of a woman in his official office. Then it turned out that it wasn’t true, or at least there was no evidence that it was, and the newspaper had to publish a correction and apologize.

Likewise, he ended the presentation by commenting other news of an advisor to the president zipped his fly in front of a woman in his official office.

However, he emphasized that, this time the PSOE“, which demands so much rigor from the media, concluded after several months of arduous reflection and a week of intense investigation that the accusation is… “credible”.