The fundamental assignment of a journalist is to broadcast news, based on the objective events that truly appeal to the public interest.
And in order to fulfill this exercise, they must stick with inviolable rules that demand accuracy, truthfulness and neutrality in those news to not mix them up with ingredients that arouse distrust or disbelief in their audiences.
For those who are professionals of this occupation, these values predominate as rules of inexcusable compliance since on the basis of this information where society can articulate their demands and aspirations, with an exercise of freedom of speech of their ideas that should never be asphyxiated by coercive regulating laws nor much less contaminated by falsehoods.
The independent press is taking care of this in order to sustain their determined fight against anything that damages the freedom under which the communication media must operate in a democratic society.
As they preserve the credibility of their content, they generate the trust and loyalty of their readers, viewers, listeners or users of digital media, highlighting the importance and majesty of the freedom of speech, guaranteeing democracy.
Now that there’s a wider field for communications between people through and internet platforms that provide news and a wide assortment of content, much more reason exists to take care of these freedom principles and the excess of said freedom that can be incubated in these web pages.
The most susceptible field is the digital one, since anyone who enters it to broadcast news must be responsible for assuming that they hold truth and are verified, and should contain the basic elements of what, how, when and where they were originated.
Concerned about the risks of the misuse of digital platforms, Tim Berners, known as the inventor of the world wide web, claims that three basic premises should be revised on those platforms: “protecting personal data, firewalling fake news and promoting transparency in the political campaigns “.
In addition, it could respect inalienable human rights, such as the right to honor, privacy and the free emission of thought, values that fortunately the professional journalism cultivates because it is well aware of the public service quality that the independent press carries in its insides.
The biggest challenge of the journalists is and will continue to be to guarantee the reliability of the information they transmit, especially now that “post-truth” is strained as a corrosive virus in the cells of the global social communication ecosystem.
-Translate by Randy Rodriguez
Director's Thoughts 