The contempt for professional journalism shown in the Supreme Court’s Criminal Bench is intolerable. Journalism is not a basic function among the profession, and this is the attitude adopted by the court, which is the only Spanish citizen whose testimony is not valid in the judicial headquarters, to such an extreme that President Andres Martínez Arrieta warns journalists who “do not threaten” when they present the moral dilemma in which they find themselves. He says he was not the state’s fiscal secretary, but professional secrecy prevents him from revealing the real filter in court. This is because this is what Article 20(1)(d) of the Constitution provides for. The judge’s response has been to attack any testimony or simple explanation, accusing journalists of trying to do something wrong against him.
It is the actions of the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court that are causing deliberate harm, grave and perverse damage to journalism. Journalists, like other citizens, have a duty to obey the law and determine the truth in court. And if someone considers that this journalist is deliberately lying, he is obliged to initiate appropriate criminal proceedings. What would happen in a hypothetical case where the court accused the Secretary of Finance of revealing secrets? In court, all the journalists who declared themselves witnesses and said they could confirm that García Ortiz was not the author of the filtering were lying. However, journalists cannot lie to judges under the terms of their testimony. No way. The only person authorized to do so is authorized to maintain the confidentiality of its sources, which is an essential element in protecting sensitive information.
What happens in prison will have a very serious impact on the practice of journalism and the relationship between professional journalism and, at some level, the judiciary. La Sala filed a lawsuit against journalism, denying all credit for the journalists’ testimony. We must become our own journalists, making it once and for all that the practice of journalism does not condone lying. And that the juice cannot be denied our prestige in the same condition as any other test. Years of professional and thorough practice cannot be over in an instant, and the reputations of those who have proven themselves to be active with the relevant features and applications cannot be ruined. Years of striving to maintain high standards of professional journalism cannot remain fundido in a few days. Because of one of the great dangers of our time, the lack of respect on the part of some of those in charge of office, which society needs more and more of every day, to indoctrinate the population with the idea that truth does not exist.
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