In yet another contentious address, this time delivered before an audience at the National University in Bogotá on Monday, President Gustavo Petro took aim at two of Colombia’s largest media networks, Caracol and RCN, accusing them of contributing to the “stupidification” of Colombians. The president, during a symbolic ceremony for a new Fine Arts building and laying the foundation stone, lambasted the radio networks affiliated with RCN and Caracol, alleging that they played a role in “brutalizing” society amidst discussions on the privatization of public education.
Petro asserted that a wave of privatizations has left many students without access to higher education and contended that RCN and Caracol were instrumental in disseminating a form of knowledge that “brutalized” the Colombian people. He emphasized that “the only knowledge transmitted to the majority of citizens is that which comes through the airwaves of these stations.”
While steering clear of delving into the musical preferences of his fellow citizens, the president argued that tuning in to stations affiliated with Caracol and RCN has “numbed Colombian society” and fostered a sense of “normalcy around death, genocide, and human rights violations against the vulnerable.” Petro called on the public to remain vigilant with media coverage.
President Petro faced criticism in the past from the Foundation for Press Freedom (Flip) for stigmatizing the press and labelling the largest media companies as “fake news” outlets. In a letter to the President, Flip emphasized the high public interest in Noticias Caracol’s revelations of illegal campaign financing and audio tapes that allegedly implicated a drug trafficker and his wife in supporting Petro’s campaign in Yopal, Casanare, in 2022. The press freedom entity reminded Petro of his obligation to “provide guarantees for the press to investigate, publish, and express opinions on this matter.”
Petro’s statement at the Universidad Nacional was met with sharp rebuke from industry insiders and opposition leaders, among them, former President Iván Duque. “With the manipulation of facts, post-truth, and lies, they (the Government of Petro) try to generate hatred, rejection, and repudiation against the media,” stated the former right-wing President. “Through these means, in many countries, media outlets were closed, something that is already pathological in terms of this violent attitude against those who are guarantors of democracy,” posted Duque on “X”.
Former presidential candidate Sergio Fajardo highlighted on his social media platform that the statements by President Petro “are delusional, discrediting, and shameful. They are an insult to his own people.” Fajardo went on to emphasize that “the president is the country’s first educator, and every day he gives lessons in intolerance, resentment, and anger. Regrettable.”
One of Colombia’s top talk show commentators, Julio Sánchez Cristo of W Radio, and regarded as a government sympathizer had this to say regarding Petro’s latest attack on the media: “The president has every right to criticize, to disagree with public opinion leaders, but we cannot accept his statement about two networks that have been on the air for more than 150 years, informing, entertaining, and covering the most remote places in our geography. Caracol and RCN do not ‘brutalize’.”
Vicky Dávila, director of Semana claimed that “the silence of colleagues, institutions, and even a part of society, in the face of Petro’s attacks against the press, journalists, or media, is worse than the attacks themselves.” For Dávila, “indifference is complicity.” The influential investigative journalist warned that Petro’s remarks are a “resounding blow to democracy, and a warning that Colombians should take seriously before it is too late.” The right-wing commentator added that “when freedom of expression and freedom of the press end, everything ends.”
