The Narco News Bulletin
"The name
of our country is América"
-- Simón
Bolívar
Marcos
on the Media
From
the June 19, 2000 Communiqué on the Mexican Elections
Second of Ten
Declarations
Second: In
this election process it has been evident that the place of the
citizen as voter is not respected. In its place has been the
media, markedly the electronic media, who have owned the singer's
voice. The indiscriminate use of "polls," many of them
conducted without the least bit of scientific rigor, have displaced
the citizen voter as elector. Now it doesn't matter to dispute
an election at the ballot box, but rather to win it or lose it
in the headlines of the written press and the newsmakers of radio
and television.
The citizen doesn't make
his decision in front of the distinct political options, but
rather in front of the media, and the image that they present
of the political proposals. "Modernity" has not meant
for our country the passage to democracy, to government of the
people, by the people, and for the people. The exercise of political
power has not passed from the political class to the citizens,
but rather to the publicists, editors, anchors and commentators.
If sometimes it is said
that governing can happen through the media, today this has been
inverted so that now one is governed (and the government is disputed)
in and by the media, the substitution of the citizen by the radio
and the TV. This is not democracy. It is virtual government and
the virtual change of government. The government palaces, the
legislative halls and the polling places are already not in their
real homes, but rather in news programming.
On this stage where the
nation is substituted for the "rating," is where the
electoral contest has fundamentally been offered. Save some honorable
exceptions, the candidates for the presidency have led their
efforts (and their economic resources) almost exclusively to
the terrain of the media. Beyond the obvious profits, the media
has obtained a political role that surpasses many of its prerogatives
and, above all, its capacities.
It's clear that the opportunity
of the political parties to make their positions known through
radio and television is an important advance in democratization.
And it's laudable that the parties take advantage of it.
The problem is that, more
than a few times, this coverage is not fair (the official party
demolishes the others in times and in stellar hours), and it
is not a political position that is broadcast, but rather they
opt for scandal, insult, defamation or banal gossip. More still,
very often the communicator becomes the judge of what he communicates,
and "decides" what and how he is going to inform.
As has been signaled by
various workers in the press, the role of the media is not that
of voter, but of communicator. To not understand that or not
to work in congruence with that, has proved more than one to
commit lamentable excesses.
The media in Mexico now
have a more determinant role in national life. It's fair to recognize
that not only has the irresponsibility of some of its members
increased in the new character of their profession, but also
that more than a few have grown in their independence, their
critical spirit and their honesty. Still, the responsible attitude
in the electronic and written press has not come from the majority
of them.
This is not about putting
aside the media or silencing them as a way to avoid the substitution
of the citizenry's decision, but rather of returning the right
of the citizens and the political organizations to fairness,
truth, honesty and responsibility by the communicators in the
political arena.
The citizen has a right
to truthful, opportune and complete information. There is no
law that guarantees this, nor agency that defends or monitors
its compliance.
Today, in front of the
current election process, We the Zapatistas reaffirm one of the
points of our fight: The right to information and culture.
Translated from
the original Spanish by Al Giordano of The Narco News Bulletin
To read original
in Spanish:
To read
the entire communiqué:
Authentic Journalism
Enters the 21st Century