Some mafia-like attitudes against journalists that say much more than any news

I often publish on this blog criticisms of media outlets for their practices that are contrary to professional ethics, and I will continue to do so.

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The right to criticize is one of the characteristics of a democracy. A right that can be directed against media outlets, blogs (like this one), public figures, social organizations, sports clubs, religious organizations and other very varied types of entities. And of course, against ideologies and political parties.

If someone intends to formulate ideological approaches or launch a political party and be safe from criticism, what they are trying to do is impossible, at least in a democratic society. The impossibility of criticizing a party or an ideology only exists in single-party regimes like Cuba, communist China and North Korea, where anyone who dares to do so runs the risk of suffering the most severe punishments, both against him and his family.

I have been denouncing the mafia-like attitudes of the extreme left for years, attitudes that have been expressed in threats to the media and political rivals, and also in physical attacks. Of course, these types of attitudes are not exclusive to one ideology, although they are certainly more frequent among those ideologies that profess a manifest hatred of freedom and democracy. That is why it is easy to see them among communists.

Lately I have been seeing these types of attitudes in a part of the right, or rather, the extreme right, because if there is one thing that characterizes the extremes of the political map it is their rejection of democracy and their justification of violence. I recently reported on Twitter several violent threats against Javier Rubio Donzé, founder of Academia Play and contributor to The Objective. This morning I came across a message posted yesterday by an anonymous far-right account inciting attacks on several journalists, including Rubio Donzé. The message has been liked by 172 people.

To begin with, I would like to express my support for those accused of inciting violence, regardless of their ideology. I have already reported this message to Twitter. Just as I have done when these things came from the far left, I encourage those who suffer from this type of threats and incitement to violence to report them to the police or to a court. In a democratic society, we should not tolerate those who use, justify or incite violence against others simply because they do not like their opinions. If we tolerate this, tomorrow any of us could be the victim of this type of act (some of us, unfortunately, have already suffered it).

Obviously, if someone does not like a news item or opinion piece published by a media outlet about a person, an organization or an ideology, they have the right to criticize it and, if what was published corresponds to possible crimes such as defamation or slander, they have the right to report it to the courts. In a democracy, it is the judges who establish in each case whether someone has exceeded the limits of freedom of expression.

What is not right is to use violence to intimidate others for publishing a news item or an opinion. In fact, this type of response ends up saying more about those who make them than the news item or opinion that they did not like. This is something that some people seem not to realize. Then the crying will come.

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Image: Grok.