The information of the world upside down

The man eats the grass
the donkey the candies
The granddaughter sends the grandfather
And the jack to the king of clubs.

JAVIER GARCIA

We live in the world upside down that sang Violet Vine and also described Eduardo galeano. What is new is that now that planet upside down is told to you daily by the big media and broadcast on television.

The press, whose mission – they told us – was to exercise watchdog as a vigilant counterweight to power on behalf of the citizens, it seems to have become just the opposite: a guardog, according to the theory formulated by George Donohue, a watchdog that must be trained and that does not protect the collective, but power.

Every day we get from everywhere a story of the world that closely follows the narrative of the hegemonic power and the interests of its industrial corporations, among them in a prominent place those of armament. The media not only does not question that narrative in the name of citizens or the truth, but amplifies and repeats it endlessly.

The journalist-watchdog of our time turns to his masters instead of questioning them. He is trained for that and seems to do it automatically, without stopping to think if it is "everything true lies" as Violeta Parra said.

Thus, the dominant power -which has carried out a whopping more than a hundred military interventions in the last 30 years- is presented as a champion of peace, while the emerging power -which has not fired a single shot outside its borders in the last 34 years - it is shown to us as the "great threat" that must be contained and combated.

The country whose policemen put a foot on the neck of a black man until he suffocated is a champion of human rights. That of the policemen who do not carry weapons, a "dark oppressive dictatorship."

The nation that is described as the epitome of economic freedom and free trade is the one that establishes the most tariffs, unleashes the most trade wars and imposes the most restrictions and vetoes on the free activity of companies from other countries. So many that globalization has stopped in its tracks that they did not stop extolling us until very recently.

At the recent CPC congress, multilateralism, non-intervention in the affairs of other countries, free trade and the urgency of a peace policy were widely advocated. Also, it was decided to inscribe in the Chinese Constitution issues of special importance for the world, such as "shared prosperity", the distribution of wealth, green development or the construction of an ecological civilization.

Have you heard of any of this? Probably not, because the focus of the media was on the supposed live and televised "purge" of a former president of the country. It doesn't matter if that risky argument was the furthest from the idiosyncrasy, the traditional prudence or the reverential respect of the Chinese towards their elders, even more so if they are former presidents. For a herd of journalists and so-called experts, that was the big "news" of the congress and that was how it should be spread.

Also the references to Taiwan, in which the Chinese president was more moderate than expected, became by art of birlibirloque a new “threatening Chinese aggression”. Not to mention the composition of the new CCP Standing Committee, in which Xi Jinping "filled the leadership with loyalists" as if the European presidents or those of any other part were dedicated to sowing the Sanhedrin of their parties with traitors.

It is worth remembering point 8 of the UNESCO International Code of Journalistic Ethics: the true journalist respects the distinctive character, value and dignity of each culture, as well as the right of each people to freely choose and develop their political, social, economic or cultural systems. Or the 9: The ethical commitment to the universal values ​​of humanism warns the journalist against any form of advocacy or incitement in favor of wars of aggression and the arms race, especially with nuclear weapons, and all other forms of violence, hate or discrimination, especially racism.

But current journalism seems to be in its element, respecting very little the value and dignity of each culture, let alone the right of each people to freely choose and develop their political and social systems.

The same happens with the information on the war in Ukraine, in which not only is Putin the devil with horns, but all Russians are innately evil, whose Army populates the cities with corpses, while the Ukrainian apparently fights between cotton wool . For this reason, countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Finland, in addition to the Baltics, have prohibited entry to all Russian citizens. It must be that they are bad per se, even if they flee from Putin.

And the same thing happens with other countries that should be demonized, whether they are called Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran and now India or Saudi Arabia, with which the hegemon has suddenly become angry and is no longer happy. Power indicates the objective and the media are quick to describe the characteristics of their world upside down. 

It will be the end of the world
When in the deep seas
The groves flourish.

Javier García is a journalist. He has been head of correspondents in the Middle and Far East, Latin America, Europe and Africa, as well as a special envoy to different war conflicts. Currently, he is a professor of Journalism at Renmin University in Beijing. His last book is China, threat or hope.