President Evo Morales, who has a tense relationship with the press, lashed out again against some opposition media, accusing them of trying to weaken his administration, IFEX reports.
Morales said the media have the desire to “weaken” and diminish the popularity of his administration as the first “Indian” president of the country, radio FM Bolivia said. “We understand [that] there is freedom of expression, but we also have the right to tell the truth and face this communication battle,” he said during a ministerial meeting of the social area of the nine countries that make up the Bolivarian Alliance in Cochabamba, in central Bolivia.
“I want to tell you with no fear: the only opponent we have in Bolivia are some of the communications media,” he emphasized, as quoted by Los Tiempos.
Morales said he had created the Ministry of Communication to, in his view, help “impose the truth and not the lie(s) of some communications media.”
In addition, the president issued in late 2010 an antiracism law that, in principle, had threatened to punish media that disseminate racist ideas or commentaries from third parties. Even though this provision was omitted from the final version of the law, the Bolivian press has reported accusations have been made against reporters and media based on this law.
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» Los Tiempos (The presidential image)
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
