Right to Truthful Information

Abstract The right to truthful information is a core principle of contemporary journalism and communication, especially in a scenario characterized by post-truth, polarization, and disinformation. The adjective truthful gives this right to information a quality that allows it to be contrasted, checked, and verified, making it possible to distinguish news from other messages that are as equally free, such as opinion or propaganda. Well into the 21st century, post-truth, polarization, and disinformation triumph in the media and on social networks, but this situation highlights their shortcomings: facts. This is analogous to consuming a proposed diet that is mainly rich in processed and fast foods but lacking in primary sources and therefore lacking in vitamins and minerals. Information strategy campaigns are based on purely ideological messages of hate, esteem, support, denial, and enthusiasm as opposed to objective data and objective facts. It is the role of journalists to investigate to be able to disseminate well-researched information, and this is what distinguishes at least the conventional media—the serious (mainstream) media, so to speak—from others. The problem and questioning of the veracity of information is not new. After World War II, the importance was asserted of the right to the facts, a concept coined by Paul-Louis Bret (director of Agence France-Presse) in 1946 and later included in various European constitutional charters, such as that of Germany (1949), Portugal (1976), and Spain (1978). In the digital age, disinformation and the deliberate distortion of public discourse undermine trust in the media and thus in democratic processes. The proliferation of ideologically targeted messages on digital platforms, combined with the exponential speed at which hoaxes spread (up to six times faster than verified news), is creating an information ecosystem in which the factual is displaced by the emotional and the spectacular—a phenomenon that, when it extends to news media and journalists, leads to a loss of reputation and, consequently, audience. One of the most obvious symptoms of the deterioration of journalism is the proliferation of pseudo-media and pamphlets, which are characterized by their lack of rigor, lack of editorial responsibility, and tendency toward extreme polarization. Moreover, contemporary post-truth, in its most radical manifestation, embodies an informative denialism that questions the very existence of objective truths and even scientific certainties.