Democratic erosion begins with press attacks, experts warn at Gabo Festival

Experts gathered at the Gabo Festival in Bogotá issued a stark warning: the decay of democracies often commences with systematic assaults on freedom of expression and the press. They observed that disinformation, amplified by social media, is fostering a novel strain of climate denial, thereby impeding effective responses to the environmental crisis.

Catalina Botero, a lawyer and expert on freedom of expression, identified a "documented pattern" in the processes of autocratization. This pattern, she explained, begins with the stigmatization of journalists and critical voices, gradually weakening institutional checks and balances. "There is a documented pattern of states that erode their own democracies that starts with attacks on freedom of expression," Botero stated during a panel discussion on the "Climate crisis amid democratic crisis."

Botero elaborated that following a period of democratic expansion from the 1980s to the early 2000s, a global retreat of these political systems has been evident since 2010. This decline correlates with a deterioration of guarantees for exercising freedom of expression. The process typically involves discrediting journalists and media outlets, followed by judicial harassment and the capture of institutions like the judiciary, and in some instances, control over electoral bodies.

Adding to the discussion, Nepali journalist Kunda Dixit noted that climate denial has evolved. It no longer primarily denies the existence of the climate crisis but questions the necessity or cost of taking action. "The old denial said climate change was a hoax. The new denial accepts it exists but argues we are spending too much money to combat it," Dixit explained. He pointed out that in Asian countries like Nepal, India, and China, the visible effects of climate change, such as rapidly receding Himalayan glaciers, make outright denial increasingly untenable. Dixit cautioned that digital platforms, driven by business models that prioritize engagement, have amplified conspiratorial narratives and messages of hopelessness.