translated from Spanish: ANP rejected Mañalich’s sayings and said his unfounded disqualifications are not up to his public responsibility.

By a public statement, signed by its president Juan Jaime Díaz, the National Press Association (ANP) rejected the sayings of the Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, who in the program of Channel 13, Central Table, accused that the words of the Chinese ambassador Xu Bu, regarding the uncoverment of the diplomat on the donation 500 fans, by his country, had been invented.
The health manager said he had agreed with the ambassador to answer the fan question, and then argued that “the job of the press is that, selling things based on making up lies.”
The ANP stated that “the healthcare authority responded with serious accusations without giving any reason to call into question the literal responses – and given in writing by the diplomatic official – to that media outlet” and added that its unfounded statements “do not live up to the delicate public responsibilities it exercises or the complex time our country is experiencing in connection with the covid-19 health emergency”.
“The existence of a full freedom of information regime has been a relevant aspect of the international debate on the performance of the various governments in the face of the pandemic. National and international communications have played a key role in the scrutiny of public policies, the measures announced and the results achieved against Covid-19. It has also been these journalistic organizations that have devoted significant efforts to distorting the flow of false information and disinformation actions that have circulated on social media around the pandemic,” the ANP said.
The agency further appreciated the statement made by the government recognizing the press and stated that “we hope that Minister Mañalich does not confuse the health and legal exceptionality that our country lives, with a personal forum to denosute and insult those who subject to auditing their sayings and actions as a public authority of a democratic regime”.

Original source in Spanish