Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

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