El Espectador - Journalism of Ideas

Journalism of Ideas

During the 20th century El Espectador criticized other mass media in Colombia, which preferred to remain silent instead of denouncing the atrocities happening in the country. In the early 1980s, the daily published several articles denouncing illegal loans and other irregularities allegedly performed by the Grupo Grancolombiano, one of the most powerful financial groups at the time. As retaliation, several big companies pulled their ads from the paper, which was already facing some financial issues. El Espectador disputed accusations made against it and dedicated an editorial piece to its credibility and the credibility of the financial groups.

El Espectador also demanded in its editorials freedom of the press and denounced the political censorship the independent media outlets had to deal with to avoid being closed, stating that "not even in the worst times of press censorship or political retaliation, some resorted to crime in order to silence the press, in one of its more noble and higher democratic functions." It recognized that in Colombia "the death penalty ordered and executed from the lowest social holes has become an habit, as a revenge against the work of social sanity the press is committed to." It concluded saying that "the feeling of siege and danger —on the press— would be negatively reflected on the whole democratic system."

The newspaper rejected being considered as "subversive opposition" and criticized Liberal president Julio César Turbay Ayala's government, which by its words wished to "have a totally loyal, extremely pro-government press, not silenced but flattering." To defend itself, the paper published 15 July 1979 a column named Si eso es opposición... ("If that's opposition...") In the same text, the newspaper declared itself "neutral", considering that a democracy should not be polarized, "because in the times we are living, newspapers are increasingly more independent from governments, more devoted entirely to report and guide according to their honest knowledge and understanding," adding that the "unanimous, one-way, uniformed, official press is (intended) for dictatorships and not for democracies... and we believe that Colombia is still a democracy."

El Espectador also criticized, openly, drug trafficking:

What this country really needs is not money, metal, pure materialism, but a deep resurgence of morals in both public and private sectors. Drug trafficking has corrupted us, the buying and selling of influence has corrupted us, the rush for easy money has corrupted us.
Our mafiosos find that the no-extradition (to United States) is their best life insurance, because they know that if they commit any serious or slight offences in Colombian territory, the generous cheque book or the sinister machine-gun, or the paid hit man, or the unscrupulous bodyguard willing to kill at the first chance, will keep them free enjoying their dirty, perverse fortune