DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!

Mario Alberto Ishii, the mayor of José C. Paz, has recently accused the media of “poisoning” people with bad news, causing depression, and also of attacking the president relentlessly. “All they show is doom and gloom,” according to him, and at some point he’s sure Argentines will react against those reporters, journalists, newspapers, radio and TV programmes that only shed light on “negative” issues.

This is so typical of politicians who live in denial and refuse to admit the real state of things. They prefer not to know, and furthermore, they don’t want us to know either. So if the press speaks about poverty, inflation, unemployment, lack of vaccines, insecurity, drug-trafficking – you name it – they choose to silence it, to muzzle it, or even censor it, to prevent the disclosure of embarrassing information. Freedom of press is essential to democracy, and should be defended at all costs, against all odds. Freedom of expression and freedom of the media are inextricably intertwined. We should remind public servants like Ishii, whether they like it or not. And he’s not the only one.

Irene Bianchi, Ringuelet, La Plata