Press and Subversion: A Reading of Violence in Peru

Criticism of newspaper reports and editorials is part of the natural effects that medium generates. However, beyond that general tone, in recent years a distrust toward journalistic sources of information seems to have become evident. The subversive process has called into question the very roots of journalistic work and its democratic boundaries. The national press has been affected by the subversive process, like any other social institution. But its greater responsibility lies in the fact that, a decade into the start of the problem, it has still not grasped the true dimension of what it means: it continues to exploit information about terrorism, classifying it like any other raw material of interest or sensationalism; in its coverage and treatment of the news, it uses its same working templates, correcting rather than questioning and overcoming its old vices. The newspapers involuntarily cooperate with the strategic dissemination objectives of those who took up arms when they spread facts that magnify reality, report without professional rigor, use subversive-origin terminology in a snobbish fashion without heeding its effects, and deploy information with mercenary aims or out of self-interest. (Excerpt from presentation).