Fake news atrophy the mind of people by making them "intolerant and sectarian"

The president of the Efe Agency, Jose Antonio Vera, said on Tuesday at an event with more than 300 journalists from around the world that fake news atrophy the mind of people by making them "intolerant and sectarian," and compared the effect of these fast news with that of "fast foods" on the human body. 

Vera, who spoke today at the III Media Forum of the Countries of the Silk Road, proposed as an antidote to the dissemination of fake news or the so-called "post-truth" serious journalistic work with professional commitment. 

The forum is being held this time in the town of Dunhuang, in western China's Gansu province, an ancient oasis from where the Silk Road caravans once departed.

For an audience of more than 300 press executives and international journalists, as well as many Chinese professionals, the president of Efe said that "fake news" are for information what fast foods are for healthy eating. 

Just as fast food has an "addictive flavor that appeals to us, but over time produces cardiovascular disease and obesity," fake news "amuses us because they are often scandalous and tell us things we want to hear," explained Vera. "It's about producing news that not only searches for 'likes' at the expense of sensationalism and cheap opinions, but rather seeks to entertain, educate and inform," said Vera.


In this context, the Efe president praised the work of the news agencies who, from the "humility of anonymity", take on the "extraordinary challenge of reporting 24 hours a day every day of the year." According to Vera, the agencies give customers the "gasoline they need to run." 

"Without opining, without judging or inventing, just telling what is happening," explained the president of Efe. 

Thirty-three journalists from 126 countries and 265 vehicles, including the presidents of the Latin American agencies Notimex, Télam and Prensa Latina, and the directors of the Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg "," Sputnik "," Tass "and companies such as Microsoft and Facebook.

There were also executives and journalists from newspapers such as the Financial Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Pravda, Jerusalem Post, Clarin, El Mercurio, El Mundo, , among other press vehicles of the five continents.