Defending freedom of expression

El Espectador was founded in Medellín in 1887. Its impartiality and critical editorial line led it to be the victim of attacks, resulting in the exile and persecution of several of the newspaper’s employees. According to the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, Colombia continues to be one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. It is ranked 134th out of 180 countries.

© Getty Images / Rick Maiman / Sygma

134 years of defending freedom of expression

And the struggle continues. Recognized for its journalistic innovation and as the origin of internationally renowned writers, the Colombian newspaper ElEspectador takes astand for independent media.

by Élber Gutiérrez Roa

El Espectador is the oldest media outlet in Colombia and a recognized stage for journalistic innovation, investigation, denouncing corruption, promoting democratic values and training internationally renowned writers and reporters. It was founded in 1887 to exercise independent journalism and disseminate liberal ideas amid conservative hegemony. El Espectador suffered several closures due to political persecution and its founder, Fidel Cano Gutiérrez, was imprisoned a number of times as a result of official persecution. Those were times when reading El Espectador had been declared a cause for excommunication by the high hierarchs of the Catholic Church.

El Espectador was the journalistic cradle of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, who developed all his talents here as a columnist and correspondent in Europe. Much of Gabo’s literary work was first published by El Espectador—from his first short story ’The Third Resignation’ to the first chapter of his masterpiece ’One Hundred Years of Solitude.’

But the history of El Espectador is not only built with stories of excellence from a literary point of view. In its 134 years of life, El Espectador has been a symbol of courage and even of survival in the face of the powers that have historically threatened freedom of expression in Colombia: corrupt politicians, economic emporiums, drug trafficking and other violent actors.

In the middle of the 20th century, the military dictatorship in Colombia ordered the closure of El Espectador, which had to change its name for a year to continue circulating almost clandestinely. With the 80s came two of the greatest battles that El Espectador has fought. The first was the series of investigations that revealed how Grupo Grancolombiano, the largest economic emporium in the country at that time, fraudulently maneuvered with the money of bank savers. The group’s revenge was to massively withdraw the newspaper’s advertising in order to suffocate it economically. And it almost succeeded.

The battles in defense of freedom of expression continue, although some threats have mutated.

The second was the crusade against Pablo Escobar, who was a congressman at the time. El Espectador unmasked him and revealed that he was in fact the most dangerous mafioso in the world. Seeing himself exposed, the capo declared El Espectador a military target and ordered an explosive attack that blew up the newspaper’s headquarters in 1989. Amidst the ruins of the building and with the few pieces of equipment that remained in service, the reporters continued their work and produced an emblematic edition titled “Seguimos adelante” (“We continue forward”). Three years earlier, assassins in the service of Pablo Escobar had murdered Guillermo Cano, the director of El Espectador who discovered that Escobar was a drug trafficker.

Since then, the highest award for freedom of expression in the world, which is awarded every May 3 by UNESCO, bears the name of Guillermo Cano. Every journalist in the world dreams of one day having his professional virtues.

Each of its 134 years of history is a concrete example of concern for innovation. El Espectador dared to make decisions that at the time were widely criticized. It was the first print newspaper in Colombia to use photographs and news agencies, the first to incorporate women journalists, the first to print its paper products with ecological inks, the first to use the digital subscription model, and the pioneer among print newspapers in the creation of video journalistic formats, which have been widely accepted in Latin America. And it continues to reinvent itself.

The battles in defense of freedom of expression continue, although some threats have mutated. The great change lies in the fact that the world is more connected and any media that wants to be relevant must take advantage of this to nurture its journalistic production. Although its use also involves risks, the Internet is an excellent tool for journalism and El Espectador is looking to leverage its universality, timelessness and multiplatform, as well as the possibility of interaction with audiences.

Our idea is to work with algorithms, instead of working for algorithms. We use social networks to disseminate the best journalism, but we do not let internet meters set the agenda for us. El Espectador’s audiences are not looking for news or trending scandals. They want the issues explained in depth. And they don’t swallow it whole. In these times of a pandemic and social protests, it has become clear that digital consumption has changed; that cell phones are increasingly used to access information and that social networks are being used more and more to disseminate fake news.

Hence the importance of seeking alliances with DW, whose journalistic production not only complements us because it provides videos of great aesthetic quality and reaches regions of the world to which we do not have access, but also because it shares the values of respect for individual freedoms and the promotion of human rights.

© Élber Gutiérrez Roa

Élber Gutiérrez Roa

is a Colombian journalist and a specialist in politics. He has been editor-in-chief of DW’s partner El Espectador since 2008, and since 2015, its multimedia editor, too. Roa has a master’s degree in International Affairs. He has worked in the media for 25 years covering politics, human rights and peace processes.

He is also a professor and workshop leader and a founding member of Consejo de Redacción, an association of journalists that promotes investigative journalism. He has been honored with the most important journalism awards in Ibero-America, including the King of Spain journalism prize (2006 and 2007) and the Inter-American Press Association Award (2006).