Media and democracy: The past, present and the future of press freedom in Chile

Press freedom in Chile today is not a relevant issue because it is been thought that there is almost no problem related to freedom of expression. However, this Latin American country has a long history to tell. By means of media freedom, today Chile is an a good situation regarding the rankings of Democracy and Press Freedom in the world. But it is the fact that, is only after years of hard struggles in the last 50 years Chile enforce universal rights such as press freedom and freedom of expression. The experiences during the government of Salvador Allende and later Dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet cemented the path of the media and the journalism practices. Standing on this historical context, this study aims to know the history of the last 50 years of journalism in Chile. For that, were interviewed 15 journalists who worked at different times, that is, some worked in the times of Allende, others during the dictatorship and finally the rest currently are working in different media. Their experiences and points of view will serve to know how the reality of journalism in Chile was it and also what are the current difficulties that communications professionals have to face. In addition, they will take a look at the future to see what will happen to journalists and media in Chile.