January 23, 2018
The radicalization between supporters and detractors of independence has made the practice of journalism in Catalonia a risky and complex task. Reporters Without Borders recently presented a detailed report calling for respect for the work of journalists in this community, a report criticized by sectors related to the independent movement, who interpreted it as an attack in part. Nothing new in circumstances like those we have been living for months in which emotions deprive us of reason. I am sure that those who have criticized it the most did not bother to read its 22 pages because they had already taken sides beforehand.
The work of Reporters Without Borders is not liked in many cases. From our NGO we are already accustomed to receiving criticism for denouncing attacks against freedom of information and the work of journalists around the world and also in Spain, but we ask that if we publish a detailed report read before dismissing him with a “clear, always against Catalonia.” Because it is not against Catalonia as it is not against Spain when we ask for the repeal of the Gag Law or warn against the modification of the Criminal Prosecution Law or the reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary, complaints in which we have been singled out, even at the level of direct complaints to the Rajoy Government.
The fact is that local journalists and foreign correspondents have presented Reporters Without Borders with real cyberbullying campaigns on social networks and propaganda pressures instigated and/or supported even from the political sphere of the Government of the Generalitat. We detail them in our report and ask that the work of all professionals in Catalonia be respected. At the same time, the organization urges that judicial procedures not be used to intimidate the Catalan media, which have also been used. And along these lines Reporters Without Borders focused on a possible intervention by the Catalan public channel TV3, in the line of application of article 155 of the Constitution that ultimately did not occur. You cannot make biased or incomplete readings of any document you want to criticize.
After the events of September-October in Catalonia and the mobilizations in the street with unbearable levels of pressure for the work of the press, journalists suffered verbal and physical attacks by both the independentists and the unionists. On October 1, the photojournalists who recorded the images of police and civil guards evicting people who were going to vote in some polling stations “were thrown away cleanly” They were injured by both security forces. We don’t want images of excess (that’s why the “gag law” was approved). Xavi Barrena, Sofia Cabanes, Jason Parkinson were injured. Previously we dealt with the case of Hilario Pino, who removed the microphone from his hands to prevent the transmission of a call for a referendum.
During those days, at the doors of the Parliament and the National Court Antonio García Farreras, Anna Cuesta, Josefa Yalamo, Mikel Valls were forced to abandon their work under the protection of the Catalan police in the face of dangerous harassment by groups affected by processes. In the same vein, Mathieu de Taillac, Elise Gazengel, Julia Macher, Henry de Lagurie, Ryan Heath and a long list of foreign correspondents complained about ” ;monitoring, evaluations and comments with corrections by the independence movement” ( * ) . Likewise, the journalists from the public channel TV3, Marta Viladot and Laura Catalans were insulted and shaken while a group of “spontaneous” performed “escratges” against Catalunya Radio.
The complaints received by both national and foreign journalists were with names and certification from the media outlets that work in Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom… Only some local professionals wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Most provided “captures” of the corners and insults received. The harassment on social media was sometimes devastating. Without going into the details that we all know, professionals of the caliber of Siscu Bages, Cristian Segura, Jordi Evole, were “put in the pillory” through insults and threats. Especially the director of El Periodico de Catalunya Enric Hernández, was the object of a real lynching on Twitter after the publication of information from the CIA about a possible jihadist attack on Las Ramblas in Barcelona.
One of the immediate consequences of these attacks on journalists is that some of them think twice before writing news or reports about events in Catalonia. Personally, I believe there are two red lines that can never be crossed or taken for granted. The first, harassment of the exercise of journalism from those in power and their environment and the second, a consequence of the first, self-censorship.
Maria Dolores Masana Arguelles
Former president and member of the Board of Directors of Reporters Without Borders
( * ) Correction: the original phrase published has been replaced at the request of Julia Macher, who has clarified to RSF that she has not suffered attacks, but he has denounced that “there is a very close and organized monitoring of what we (journalists) do in Catalonia for the independence movement… Articles with corrections are valued.