Iker Jiménez and the honor of being attacked by Sánchez, an immoral and authoritarian politician

Spain has a government besieged by corruption scandals and whose incompetence recently caused 47 deaths in train accidents.

Sánchez's scandalous spitting on the graves of the 46 dead of Adamuz
Pedro Sanchez's 'Gag Plan' imitates Franco's and Putin's measures to control the media

To prevent criticism of his terrible management, a few days ago Sánchez threatened to impose censorship on social media, a maneuver with which his coalition government of socialists and communists anticipated by a week the blocking of Telegram, Youtube and WhatsApp by the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin in Russia.

This is not the first time the Spanish Socialist leader has shown he has followed the same authoritarian path as the Kremlin. Two years ago, Sánchez announced a gag order against the media that copied measures from Putin's dictatorship, all amidst a wave of corruption scandals within his party, the PSOE. The objective was clear: to silence journalists who publish things that are inconvenient for the government, just like in a dictatorship.

Since he currently lacks the necessary parliamentary majority to impose this authoritarian agenda, Sánchez uses his position and the Congress tribunal to target journalists he dislikes, an anti-democratic act with which the socialist leader demonstrates that among the things he dislikes about this democracy called Spain are freedom of expression and freedom of information.

As I already mentioned this afternoon, in his disgraceful parliamentary interventions today, Sánchez attacked Iker Jiménez, a journalist for the Cuatro channel, where he hosts a current affairs program, "Horizonte," which has a significant audience and is openly critical of the government. Here you can listen to the despicable words of the Socialist leader about Iker Jiménez (the video is in Spanish but has an English audio track; you can activate it in the bottom bar of the player):

As we can see, Sánchez has dismissed Iker Jiménez's reporting with terms like "hate" and "fake news," but without explaining when this journalist has fueled hatred or lied. It is certainly a colossal display of cynicism that the most mendacious president in Spanish history dares to accuse someone of lying, an attitude known in psychology as "projection," which consists of attributing one's own flaws to others.

With those words, Sánchez is doing more than criticizing a journalist: he is pointing to a target to be silenced by the government. He has done so from the seat of national sovereignty and receiving the infamous applause of his party's members of parliament. I don't always agree with that journalist from Channel Four, but when a prime minister singles out an honest journalist like that, I too feel attacked, because what Sánchez is trying to do is not only discredit a journalist, but intimidate all journalists in Spain so they don't dare to do what Iker Jiménez does: report on the government with a critical perspective. Therefore, I express my full support for Iker in the face of this intolerable attack.

Sánchez's display of authoritarianism against a journalist will ultimately generate a Streisand effect, which is what happens when someone tries to censor something because it bothers them and ends up giving it more notoriety. For Iker Jiménez, it must be an honor to be singled out by an immoral and authoritarian politician like Sánchez, because it shows that what he does bothers him, and being bothersome to such a despicable ruler is something that honors that journalist.

Those who should be ashamed are the journalists who act as the voice of their master and as mere propagandists for those in power, not only parroting government slogans on any political issue, but also contributing to their witch hunts against critical media outlets and journalists. Many of us Spaniards will not forget the attitude some are taking right now.