This Thursday the general of Carabineros, Álex Chaván demanded that the journalist Paulina de Allende-Salazar leave a press point for having said “paco” in a live dispatch about the investigations into the murder of senior noncommissioned officer Daniel Palma. As soon as she said the word “paco” the journalist apologized and rectified, realizing her mistake, and minutes later publicly apologized for the fact. The episode later involved De Allende’s dismissal from the channel where he worked, Mega.
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This Sunday, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve referred to the fact in the program Mesa Central of Channel 13, where he pointed out that the authority cannot condition freedom of the press.
“I believe that a basic principle of democracy is freedom of the press and authority cannot condition that freedom of the press. Therefore, I agree that these are facts that we cannot normalize,” Monsalve said.
“One can understand the context but also has to look at them in the principles that guide the conduct of the country, and it seems to me that it is not those types of events that should lead the country,” he added.
The reactions in support of the journalist did not take long to arrive, from the College of Journalists of Chile condemned the veto made by the general of Carabineros.
“We condemn the veto suffered by journalist Paulina De Allende by Carabineros General Álex Chaván. The colleague apologized and it is not appropriate to be pointed out in this way, “they said through their official Twitter account.
To this they added: “The suspension of the press point, for this reason, reinforces stigmatizing speeches against journalists, which affects the right to information of citizens, which is above individual errors.”
Journalist and columnist Oscar Contardo referred to the dismissal of Paulina de Allende-Salazar as an unfair act.
“The dismissal of the reporter is unfair and sets a dangerous precedent in a fragile media ecosystem for a pauperized profession such as journalism. The very fact that most of the compañeros and compañeras of office refrain from expressing an opinion about it means only one thing: fear of losing their jobs and being thrown into a vacant job,” Contardo said in his opinion column in La Tercera.
However, these were not the only opinions, the CNTV reported that in about four hours a total of 2024 complaints were registered against journalist Paulina de Allende Salazar.
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