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Worse than Wrong: The Rolling Stone Defamation Case and What It Means to Journalism
AUDIO: Listen to this article on Soundcloud.

I couldn’t stop crying. I would be staring at the TV screen asking my parents how that was possible. How could the world be immersed in so much corruption, pain, disgrace… How? And how was I not aware of that until that point? I was 11 years old, and after wiping away my tears I took a deep breath and decided that I wanted to be a journalist.

Because information matters. And the world can be a sad place sometimes, but without awareness of the injustices we cannot change them. Because if anyone ever asked me if journalism has a future I would briskly say yes. No doubt it has. But when things like the one we’ll go through on this article happen, it puts the job at risk. And some might argue it is not only a job, but public service.

“The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing”. (Kovach and Rosensteil, 17)

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Militar, neoliberal y conservador: así es el Gobierno de Bolsonaro
“Seguidores del presidente electo, Jair Bolsonaro, caminan frente a un muñeco gigante con su figura en la Explanada de los Ministerios”. EFE

El Gobierno de Jair Bolsonaro empieza con el incumplimiento de una promesa electoral. El presidente electo el pasado 28 de octubre -con un 55% de los votos- se comprometió a reducir los 29 ministerios actuales a 15, pero finalmente serán 22. La tijera no ha sido todo lo dura que Bolsonaro deseaba por una cuestión de “funcionalidad”, según ha afirmado, aunque han quedado fuera siete ministerios, entre ellos el de Trabajo.

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An award does not bring Khashoggi back to life

Some journalists risk their lives to report on wars, disasters and other dangerous situations. Some others directly get killed for that. And the questions that lie unanswered are: Do politicians support them? Do they make sure they can keep reporting? Should they do it?

According to official reports, 80 journalists have been killed this 2018. Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi-Arabian journalist who criticized his country, got killed by the royal Saudi-Arabian family on their countries embassy in Istambul, Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, used that as a tool to critique Saudi Arabia, but he’s the first one practicing free speech repression.

Actually, 68 journalists are incarcerated in Turkey. His country is one of the least safe countries to be a journalist.

Donald Trump constantly calls The New York Times, CNN and more “fake news”.

As far as I am concerned, politicians do not protect journalists when they -politicians- have something to hide. The first amendment states about freedom of expression as a universal right, and it is also a democracy enforcer. The more people get to know, the better it is for their decision-making process.

War correspondents get to talk about what is happening in a conflict situation that if it didn’t have them there covering the information, it would pass unnoticed. Oriana Fallaci used to say being a journalist is a privilege because you get to see history while it’s happening. That’s true, but it shouldn’t also mean that you’re putting yourself at risk.

This year, Time magazine gave their “person of the year” award to all the journalists kidnapped, hijacked, killed so far, to the “Guardians of the truth”, as they called them. All the journalists that had the courage enough to talk about topics some would rather keep silenced. Awarding the job of journalists is great, but an award does not bring Jamal Khashoggi back to life. Journalists should not only not be attacked by politicians, but protected by them.

After all, it’s the quality of our democracy and our life that’s at stake.

este mismo día hace un año

Este mismo día hace un año publicaba este post que acaba así:

“Como dijo la poetisa A.Pizarnik: “Que este año me sea dado vivir en mí y no fantasear ni ser otras, que me sea dado ponerme buena y no buscar lo imposible sino la magia y la extrañeza de este mundo que habito. Que me sean dados los deseos de vivir y conocer el mundo. Que me sea dado el interesarme por este mundo.” 

Y quizás lo continuaría con:

Que si no se me es dado lo encuentre yo. Que este año me tome mi tiempo para hacer saber a todos cuantos quiero que lo hago, que nunca pierda las ganas por ser más y a su vez que nunca caiga en la enfermiza impaciencia. Que el perfeccionismo sea sustituido por la excelencia y que siempre tenga un momento para respirar. Que pregunte mucho, me respondan mucho y conteste mucho. Que llore un poco, ría más y disfrute el doble.

Y echando cuentas, puedo decir que el 2017 superó mis expectativas.

En 2017 cumplí 20 años e hice este vídeo en YouTube (es en inglés pero tiene subtítulos en español también):

Me siento infinitamente afortunada y algunas veces he podido llegar a sentirme hasta culpable de tener tanta suerte. Pero un día me dije que si soy bienaventurada lo único que puedo hacer es dar las gracias y aprovecharlo tanto como sepa para aportar mi granito de arena al mundo. Así que aquí estoy, sin deseo de botón de off. Seguiré dando guerra (y será tan bonita cómo pueda hacerla posible).

Deseo que todas encontréis vuestro weltanschauung y que esté siempre a punto para cualquier software update.

Love, Janira x