Efe
Barcelona 9 OCT 2019 – 08:58 CEST
Reporters without Borders (RSF) has warned on Tuesday that Catalonia has become a “dangerous terrain” for journalists, as violence has increased in intensity and the climate of tension that reporters live at street level is unbearable”.
RSF has demanded that the attacks on journalists cease – the organization has registered fifty attacks on freedom of information since September 2017; eight in 2019 – and has asked both politicians and the media for responsibility to reduce the tension in the conflict.
“We verify that the intensity of the attacks on the press goes ‘in crescendo’. From the choreographed slogans and the rebukes, we have turned to insults, harassment and bullying and, finally, to physical aggression. It is a pattern that always repeats itself in the spirals of hate against the journalist”, said RSF spokeswoman Pauline Adès-Mevel in a statement. Attacking the messenger “has become the main means of escape from the anger of protesters and journalists who report at street level are exposed, in each live connection, to physical and psychological risks incompatible with the freedom to inform”, continues the organization.
The head of the organization in Spain, Alfonso Armada, has denounced that the climate of tension experienced by reporters in Catalonia “is unbearable” and that extreme political polarization has been transferred to the media and from these to civil society. “We urge politicians and the media to act responsibly and reduce tension, according to their share of responsibilities. The impending ruling of the ‘procés‘ trial will result in new mobilizations and journalists cannot take the rap with more violence. We are reaching absolutely intolerable levels of aggressiveness and insecurity”, said Armada.
https://elpais.com/ccaa/2019/10/09/catalunya/1570572624_281298.html
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