BRASILIA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's President Michel Temer on Wednesday highlighted the importance of a free press due to the proliferation of "fake news" in the election campaign ahead of presidential elections in October.
At a conference on the social, political and economic impact of fake news, Temer said that some politicians used disinformation against other candidates to get ahead in the electoral process.
He explained that "more important than voting for a candidate, it is important to vote for (their) project" and ensuring that the candidates are "doing something for the country."
For Temer, journalism is becoming ever more important due to fake news, especially data checking.
"The written, spoken, televised press has a greater tendency to tell the truth," said the president, adding that "technological advances has a virtue and a flaw. The virtue is to propagate faster what is happening in the world. The flaw...is made by those who use the Internet to propagate fake news."
Temer called freedom of the press an "essential pillar of democracy" and that it must not only be defended but protected so people can freely form their opinions.
"Press and democracy are the same, one doesn't exist without the other. Many times, the press is accused of doing this or that...but the institution must be preserved," he continued.
Brazil will hold its general elections in October, with voters set to choose a new president, as well as voting for federal, state and local representatives.
