With a horizon marked by the dominance of information on digital platforms, journalism is compelled to fight so that its essential values prevail in the new ecosystem.
If the press has been, from the printed paradigm, the best ally of democracy, free expression and the defense of the common good, this heritage must remain alive and reflected in the digital sphere.
Regardless of the advantages that technology offers to disseminate news and audiovisual content, the essential elements of professional journalism, which range from adherence to the truth, verification of the facts and their correct interpretation and contextualization, must be maintained at any cost.
Fortunately, there is an umbilical cord between the most important references in the written press and their digital peers, which is expressed in the high number of digital payment subscriptions and other monetized products or services.
Although, as the United Nations Agency for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) says, the daily circulation of newspapers continues to decrease in the world, its digital counterpart has turned out to be a positive buffer in this process of decline.
So, the best tools of professional journalism, which made the press the cornerstone of a regime of freedoms, cannot be dropped from an ecosystem that, by far, will be the world’s predominant source of information from now on.
And, in this context, the most unavoidable commitment is to shield, with these tools, the digital field against “Fake News” that, using the same Artificial Intelligence programs, applications and algorithms, mask the truth and lead to tricks.
Societies, in this sense, must assume that when they defend freedom of the press and expression, they are exalting a sacred citizen right that must be enthroned on any platform, without distinction.