Over the past decade, Bolivia has managed some extraordinary achievements, for instance becoming the first country in the world to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals in terms of access to water. In spite of it, these news that could bring hope to people around the world are subjected to censorship from the dominant Latin American and western media. More than that, the media proceeds to relentlessly misinform and demonize all the leaders from the Global South that dare disobey the empire. The Journal of Our America has interviewed Claudia Espinoza, former vice-minister of Communication Policy from the Plurinational State of Bolivia, to ask her how the peoples can defend their right to access information, a basic pillar in the emancipation of democratic societies.
Alex Anfruns: What balance do you make in what concerns the communication policies during your time in office, between 2012 and 2016?
Claudia Espinoza: When I took office as vice-minister for Communication Policies, the state was lacking communication policies that could contribute to educate and train the populations. It was also known that the economic resources destined to communications were being handed to a few media conglomerates. On the other hand, there was a lack of modernizing in our communications, a severe technological gap.
During our term, together with Communication Minister Amanda Dávila, we made progress on these three fronts: creating communication policies such as the…