Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
190<br />
DEMOCRACY TODAY<br />
• There is a similar number of articles pro year in El Periódico and in<br />
La Opinión.<br />
• El Periódico offers more information about regional and national<br />
problems<br />
• El Periódico offers news where interrelated facets of the GMO debate<br />
•<br />
are discussed. Their news are then, more relevant and interesting<br />
than La Opinión ones.<br />
The regional economy, where local farmers use GMO crops, creates a<br />
debate between them (ASAJA) and traditional or bio farmers (UAGA).<br />
We can then confirm a part of the Marxist approach to political ideology.<br />
Economic forces create organisations and discourses in order to<br />
fight for their common goals.<br />
• The position of Spain and Aragon as leaders in GMO plants production<br />
is constantly underlined by UAGA and ecologist (Greenpeace)<br />
• There is a tendency to neutrality in the information concerning GMO<br />
plants offered by El Periódico.<br />
• The opposition of rival economic groups is in favour of a more interesting<br />
and rich information.<br />
• Only the critical political parties (IU, CA) take part in the debate<br />
• We notice a positive evolution of El Periódico. In 2004 and 2005 they<br />
only received and published press releases from parties, farmers and<br />
so on. In 2006 they began to prepare their own information.<br />
8. GMO and Economic Lobbyes in German Speaking<br />
Switzerland<br />
Following the structure that we chose in the precedent sections we<br />
will take a brief look on the German speaking Switzerland economic<br />
elements that have a real influence upon the GMO plants debate.<br />
It is important to underline the great diversity of economic sectors<br />
involved in the GMO Swiss debate. As a main actor in favour of new<br />
gen techniques we find the agribusiness company Syngenta, third<br />
world producer of genetically modified crops. Syngenta claims for<br />
more public support to their activities. The principal goal of its communication<br />
strategy is to reduce the perception of risk associated to gen<br />
technologies by investors and consumers. In the last years, Syngenta