Zuliana Lainez: “There have never been as many attacks on the press as in 2022”

For Zuliana Lainezpresident of the National Association of Journalists of Peruthe high level of violence perpetrated against journalists and the media during 2022 should not go unnoticed. The State, he points out, must guarantee the information work so that this does not happen again.

What is the balance of attacks on the press in 2022?

The National Association of Journalists of Peru has a record of the last 20 years of attacks on the press, since 2005 exactly, and we never had a number as high as that of 2022, more than 300 attacks on the press (303, exactly). .

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Who has generated this hostility towards the media?

We have been subjected -for a little over 11 months- to a permanent stigmatizing discourse of “junk press, sold press, jam press” not only by Mr. Pedro Castillo and Aníbal Torres, but also by senior officials who had this same narrative . The scenario was clear, for Castillo this type of discourse was profitable because it took advantage of the distrust of the citizenry. The stigmatizing discourse seeps and scales, and it translates into this violence towards the media. It no longer matters if it is a national or local medium. It also happened with the Legislature when the doors were not opened to journalists. Or with the regional governments that repeated the malpractice of putting police cordons on them or denying them access to press conferences, keeping them locked up, as happened in Piura and Tacna.

What must happen so that this does not happen again?

The worst thing that can happen to a democracy is not having a press. What must happen is that the State protects the exercise of journalistic activity with public policies. If the violence continues, many media will choose not to send their reporters for fear that their physical integrity is at risk.

What is the responsibility of the media?

We have to do a self-criticism. Just as we talk about vandalism, we have to talk about the dead, we have to tell the full story to regain trust, find balance.

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