Journalism and science as alternatives for defending Colombian journalists

Introduction

Colombian journalism emerged in 1791 in the city of Santafé de Bogotá and from its birth it has mainly functioned as a vehicle to disseminate political ideas and as a platform for recognized writers and intellectuals (BANREPCULTURAL, n.d.). From those times and until the present, Colombian journalism has been associated with the political and intellectual elite that has debated and developed the national ideological and political agenda, which has left other media with the attention of the middle and lower classes, as their informative preferences are mostly associated with leisure and violent news reports. Colombian journalism is mainly corporate, and it is at the service of economic groups that tend to manipulate power and turn information into sensationalism and entertainment (Castaño, 2002; Rincón, 2017).

The links among the political and intellectual realms have allowed Colombian journalism to gather a kind of economic power that enables it to influence almost any social domain, both at the interior and toward citizens, as well as over the perception that the rest of the world has of Colombia. However, and despite such power, the number of journalists that have been murdered and attacked is so high that the ex-director of news from Caracol Network, Darío Arizmendi, has stated that the profession is considered heroic and many journalists must even employ bodyguards (Gómez, 2019).

Human rights violations

According to the Foundation for the Freedom of the Press (Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa, s.f.), 160 journalists have been murdered until 2019. However, other repressive acts and censorship mechanisms have been documented, such as verbal and physical aggressions, threats, and judicial harassment (Garcés y Arroyave, 2015). The cited researchers found a positive correlation between the variables: a) autonomy to publish news about the government and the armed forces; and b) judicial harassment and death threats.

The internal armed conflict has been the main reason behind this violence in which “drug traffickers, paramilitary, guerrillas, criminal gangs, some authorities, members of the military and police officers, and corrupt politicians have participated” (Rey, 2016: 27). Almost half of the murder cases have prescribed, but only four cases have resulted in a conviction, so many of those responsible have remained unpunished (Rey, 2016). According to the National Center for the Historic Memory (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica [CNMH] 2015), such level of impunity shows in practice that killing journalists does not have serious implications.

CNMH (2015) presented the number of aggressions suffered by Colombian journalists for the period from 2006 to 2014, dividing them in threats, obstruction of journalistic work, inhuman and degrading treatment, aggressions, exile, illegal detentions, infrastructure attacks, kidnapping, murder, internal displacement, injuries, and homicide attempts. During such period, 1,236 cases were presented, in which 1,727 people were affected.

Journalists associated to the State are in an entirely different and comfortable situation and they enjoy certain protection and complacency. According to a human rights report, these journalists imprint some biases to the information they report, by using certain sources and putting aside the basic ethical principles of journalism (Hernández, 2017).

Women in journalism

Colombia occupies the third place among the most dangerous Latin American countries for practicing journalism, behind Mexico and Argentina (De Frutos, 2016). Cárdenas (2020) analyzed the news reporting of the presidential electoral process of 2018, by considering 586 news pieces from Caracol News and RCN News, and he determined the emergence of a new agenda within news reporting: the switch from the ‘war and peace’ paradigm toward new topics such as the post conflict, corruption and the environment, but realizing that women’s issues are left aside. In this sense, Flores (2017) documents the daily news treatment of feminicides, concluding that there is an interest in “making gender violence more prominent and avoiding reproducing stereotypes or blaming victims, but machista conceptions still underlie and prevent the construction of new and more equitable narratives” (p. 43).

Recently, women have been participating more in investigative journalism, however, Colombian media outlets provide little support to investigative units, as they are not financially profitable, despite the fact that they have been useful for uncovering cases of corruption, drug trafficking and other crimes. Older journalists have opted for presenting the results of their investigations in book form (Leal, Torres and Téllez, 2017). Additionally, Villanueva et al. (2017) agree on the little support that investigative journalists have received, pointing out the little specialization such journalists have; however, they acknowledge a recent increase in the training of investigative journalists, who write the results of their investigations in a more simple language to facilitate its comprehension.

Journalists’ defense in Colombia

Carvajal (2017) claims that the creation of the Journalists’ Union in Colombia was important to journalism, yet there is no satisfactory balance nor a profound reflection about journalistic syndicalism. In order to face the violations against the human rights of journalists, one of the suggestions proposed by journalists and institutions related to the field, both national and international, consists in gathering information to create a historical memory of the events under the premise that it would help to avoid the crimes of the past. This task has contributed to preserve the memory of the violations suffered by many Colombian journalists, preventing the oblivion promoted by those who have caused this violence.

Journalism and technology

Modern journalism has been complemented and reinvented thanks to the use of technology. This area counts with a modern deontological and ethical analysis that has been directed by Colombian journalism within the framework of the Ethics Code approved in 2006 by the Journalists’ Circle of Bogota, which has identified the lack of the principle of software control and the techniques employed (Díaz-Campo, and Chaparro-Domínguez, 2020). According to the cited authors, it is important to mention that this principle has not been established either, in the codes from other Latin American countries. This new journalism also includes the possibility to enable user interactions with digital media. Colombia is characterized by a low general implementation of interactive options in digital ecosystems due to the digital gap, since a great volume of the audience is disconnected or partially disconnected (Barredo et al., 2017). Nevertheless, there has been a “political transition toward peace that, besides, coincides with the digital transformation of the media that is revolutionizing journalism and the way of interacting in the web” (Álvarez, 2019: 33).

Conclusion

The analysis and the academic and scientific communication around journalism’s conditions are very important, as they can contribute in the creation of more democratic societies (Romero and Peñafiel, 2019; Waisbord, 2001; Klein, 2001). There are relevant ideas about the means developed to inform, such as a journalism for peace, which contributes to the social prevention of violence through the recommendation of alternatives that peacefully solve conflicts, fostering the reconstruction of the social fabric and seeking a reconciliation among all sectors (Fraguas, 2007; Hernández, 2016). This approach is supported in research, which requires the commitment and participation from the academia. However, Diaz (2016) states that “the problem has a central importance directly related to the health of the freedom of the press. It is surprising the relatively low academic interest on a relevant issue such as the configuration of media systems within a democracy” (p. 86). This author argues that the problem has been primarily analyzed within the journalism sphere but excluded from the academic field. Thus, the role of the latter in the social and political construction has degraded.

The previous statements partially explain the gaps between the journalistic writing style and scientific writing. This difference is observed, for instance, when some journalist who is used to a great pressure due to work demands enrolls in postgraduate studies and expresses to his scientific advisors that they are able to produce many pages of text in a short time. Nevertheless, when it comes to writing in a style that is more appropriate to the scientific method, many conceptual and methodical difficulties emerge, which may lead to a deadlock in their research. The main barrier found is the tendency of the journalist to state value judgements without presenting all the evidences needed. As a result, a scientist may not understand or positively appreciate the information published in a newspaper, and, as a result, they would not cite it or take it into account. A similar situation may happen when journalists dismiss or do not understand the value of a scientific document, which would make them use non-validated sources. It is necessary to reconcile the gap between these two perspectives.

The investigative journalism that is needed in Colombia and in other Latin American countries would consider reconstructing and making the historical memory public, relying on solid, methodological and conceptual tools supported by the academy. This would be reflected in an investigative journalism capable of using previous data to avoid mistakes in the future. To accomplish a real impact in the improvement of the journalism conditions, the result of these studies should be shared in academic and scientific contexts, with the purpose of having these publications reach all the possible areas, such as other journalists, politicians, human rights advocates, legal and judicial institutions, churches, the academy, the new generations and society in general.