Sánchez in New York: “We have never been more exposed to disinformation”

Eduardo González Yesterday in New York, at a joint event with the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, defended the Democratic Regeneration Plan approved in the middle of the month by the Council of Ministers, which aims to “improve the quality of information”, because, he warned, “never before have we been more exposed to lies and misinformation”. “For some time now, President Lula and I have been debating how to defend ourselves from systematic attacks from this reactionary wave that is threatening all our democracies”, declared Sánchez during his speech at the event ‘Spain-Brazil. In defence of democracy. Fighting against extremism’, held at the United Nations headquarters on the sidelines of the High Level Week of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly. “We see every day that these attacks are not an isolated phenomenon, but have a transnational dimension that requires a coordinated response from all of us,” the head of the Executive continued. An example of this, he said, is “disinformation and the spread of hate speech.” “Never before have generations had access to so much information and, paradoxically, never have so many generations been more exposed to lies and disinformation,” he denounced. “This is the great paradox we are experiencing and, therefore, we must guarantee freedom of the press and the right to truthful information, which are inherent to the very concept of democracy,” he continued. “But, at the same time, it is necessary to promote transparency and responsibility in the media and digital platforms, and, very especially, in all those that develop artificial intelligence,” he added. In this regard, he recalled the recent approval in Spain of “an Action Plan for Democracy in which we address these and other issues”, which “is in line with the regulations that we have approved over these four years at a European level” and which includes “specific measures to improve the quality of information and strengthen transparency”. “Citizens have to know who the owners of the media are that are behind the information that is published and consumed”, he warned. Pedro Sánchez also warned against the “rise of far-right movements”, which “is also due to good international coordination between their promoters and their political leaders”. “We are facing powerful adversaries, with important sources of funding that feed contact networks on a global scale”, he warned. “These are movements that do not recognise the election results, that deny science and, therefore, climate change; “They manipulate concepts such as freedom, they promote hate speech, racism, xenophobia, they question the participation of women in politics and in the socio-economic affairs of our democracies and, something very important, and that is that by giving up the battle of ideas, what they do is try to dehumanize the political adversary,” he declared. For this reason, Sánchez urged “to coordinate a global response to a phenomenon that is global but also has its national translation, such as this reactionary wave that we are experiencing.” “We have to mobilize, we have to work together to defend democracy in all forums, on all possible platforms,” because “we have to respond to the enemies of democracy with the same tenacity and the same coordination that they use to undermine democracy and with the strength, in addition, of everything in which we far surpass them, and that is our principles and our values,” he concluded. Economic Forum Previously, Pedro Sánchez participated in the ‘Economic Forum Spain, Latin America and the United States in the global economy’, also organized at the UN headquarters by PRISA and the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce. “Our country paid a very high price under the neoliberal dogma of austerity. We lost precious time, and today the European Union as a whole is paying the consequences,” he said during the event. Therefore, he declared, “Europe must increase public investment, not decrease it. Europe must involve the State in the generation of wealth, not push it aside.” “In our country we have been applying these policies for six years. And now we know that they work, even in a complex international context marked by uncertainty,” he said. “We must redouble public investment in technology, innovation and ecological transition, promoting public-private collaboration as we have been doing. Only in this way will we be able to make up for the time lost in the past decade and move forward with a firm step,” he insisted. Thanks to all this, he said, “Spain is experiencing one of the best times of recent decades, this must also be said abroad.” “Spain is going in the right direction and the Government's economic policy is working and all the data is confirming this,” he reiterated. Finally, he highlighted the need to improve European competitiveness, in line with the recommendations of the Draghi Report, “which Spain shares,” and placed special emphasis on the need to invest more public resources in research, in the development of new technologies and in green infrastructure. “This is the path that Spain has followed, doubling public investment in R&D and allocating two out of every five euros of the Recovery Plan to the ecological transition,” he concluded.

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