The United States isn't the only country that has a presidential election coming up. Bolivians will decide who their president will be on October 18. Will the Bolivian media play a role in the election? Or will it play a lesser role while the candidates go at it? Also, will the government play a role in what the media does?
First off, it is important to highlight some rather alarming events that occurred during last year's presidential election involving journalists, as protests that broke out following the controversial election, which was said to have involved "electoral fraud by independent university analysts". These protests resulted in 438 workers suffering injuries, and 3 people dying. These protests resulted in the resignation of the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. These attacks included shrapnel from an explosive injuring a cameraman, fires being set to journalists' houses, and news facilities being attacked by protestors. So, as you can imagine, the media in Bolivia has had quite a field day when it comes to dealing with the results of a presidential election.
On top of this, journalists and media outlets in Bolivia last year had little to no freedom when it comes to what they can publish, and what they can say, especially when it comes to the government. For instance, during Morales' tenure as president, media outlets were called out for criticizing the man, so much so that the media was accused of being a "cartel of lies". Additionally, journalists decided to write articles that weren't related to the president, or the government in general, in order to avoid trouble and scrutiny. However, ever since Morales has resigned, media has had more freedom as far as what they can post and let out in the public. As Nelfi Fernandez Reyes, an "investigative journalist with El Deber" who covered Morales' resignation, said in an interview with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, "We don't have restrictions like we did before (when Morales was president), in terms of access to information we have more options."
However, in spite of these new freedoms found for the media in Bolivia, the country's government has recently been using rather questionable tactics in an attempt to get their political message across, even using the media as a means to do this. For example, this past month, the government, which has served under interim president Jeanine Anez since the day Morales stepped down, had 55 fake Facebook accounts, as well as "42 pages and 36 Instagram accounts", linked to it and subsequently removed. These accounts were said to have been publishing "fake news campaigns to skew democratic debate" in favor of Anez. Afterwards, the Bolivian government admitted to hiring a "Washington-based lobbying firm" to "carry out lobbying in search of backing for Bolivian democracy after fraudulent elections and in support of the holding of new presidential polls."
So, based on the information regarding the freedom that the Bolivian media has nowadays compared to the days of yesteryear, and the roles that both the government and the media have already played in the upcoming presidential election, it is safe to say that the Bolivian media will likely be heavily involved in what happens come October 18th.