Serrat: "The powerful want journalism that spreads their ideology."

Spanish singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat He said in Guatemala that "information journalism is something we are lacking right now, a lot," and that "the powerful want journalism that spreads their ideology, that spreads the whitewashing of their image."

In statements to three media outlets in Guatemala City, Serrat spoke about journalism and art; about the music with which human beings are born and die ; about culture, which is everything we do; about unprotected children; about migrants, who have never been a problem; about environmental pollution; and about the "wonderful experience" he had on his first visit to El Petén, one of Guatemala's main archaeological sites.

Regarding journalism, he indicated that information "is being persecuted quite a bit because it doesn't respond to the will of the powerful , because the powerful want journalism that spreads their ideology, that spreads the whitewashing of their image."

He added that "journalism must be a means of information for the people , for those who receive the news, and they must receive it as cleanly as possible so that they are the ones who decide what is happening."

He also pointed out that there are journalists who sometimes only "replicate news that appears in news agencies" or who dedicate themselves to "chasing celebrities on the street" and "reporting, following the discourse of those in power to spread and defend the ideas of the powerful."

All of these people call themselves journalists, the artist emphasized, for whom "the journalist is the man who seeks information, who transmits it, trying to ensure that it goes as little through him as possible , but rather that it comes directly from the event or from the thoughts of the people, that people distill what he is saying and from there, that an element of information is created."

Serrat, author of "Malasangre" and "Cada loco con su tema," believes there's no necessary connection between journalism and art , and that journalism is art to the extent that it is art, and it's trash to the extent that it is art. And in other cases, it's trash art.

The Catalan singer-songwriter attends the Central America Cuenta 2025 Festival (CAC25) in Guatemala City , closing the day with a conversation with Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez , on the topic "Writing to Sing It."

The festival, which concludes next Saturday, will be attended by representatives of Latin American and Spanish literature , as well as musicians, poets, filmmakers, and other artists. The festival will be held in three cities in Guatemala.

Regarding music, he said that "we come into the world with music and we leave with music," and that although the past and the present are different, "the feelings are the same. I don't think there was a more romantic music before and a more rhythmic music now. It would be like forgetting that we were born with very rhythmic music, extraordinarily rhythmic. The rhythms that are used now are direct descendants of the rhythmic music that existed 100 and 150 years ago."

He also pointed out that each piece of music has had a primary function and that is to accompany.

Regarding culture, I emphasize that "it is everything that is done" and "it is everything, absolutely, to promote what is done, how it is done, and how we all participate in it. It is the obligation of our earthly administrators."

" I think that Central America Cuenta is a meeting point for people who agree with what I'm telling you, and for whom culture is something accessible, something natural, something that isn't unusual and that, evidently, needs basic support from the administration, just as medicine needs hospitals, as knowledge needs schools and universities, as any place of production needs resources, culture also needs these resources," he added.