{"id":458900,"date":"2010-03-22T15:07:57","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T19:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalvoicesonline.org\/?p=129963"},"modified":"2010-03-22T15:07:57","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T19:07:57","slug":"chile-changes-in-government-websites-with-arrival-of-new-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/458900","title":{"rendered":"Chile: Changes in Government Websites with Arrival of New Administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a number of official Chilean government websites, such as the Chile Government [es]<\/a> or Presidential Photos<\/a> sites, no document older than March 12, 2010 can be found. Information belonging the previous government is not longer available. For example, the entire photo archive from the governments of Michele Bachelet<\/a> and Ricardo Lagos <\/a>are no longer available. The date coincides with the day after that President Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era was inaugurated as Chile's new president.<\/p>\n

\"Government<\/a><\/p>\n

Government of Chile website<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A debate ensued on the blogosphere about the meaning and significance of the deletions. Did the officials from the new government update the information or did they deliberately take down any reference to previous governments? Pi\u00f1era's government is a marked change in Chilean politics, which brings the first right-wing government to take power in 20 years, since the country returned to democracy. With this, some bloggers say that the information should have been kept online since it was financed and belongs to the Chilean people.<\/p>\n

Pablo Bello (@pablobello) tweeted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Nueva administraci\u00f3n elimina archivos de fotos de Bachelet y Lagos – as\u00ed se instala la derecha<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

New administration deletes photo archives from Bachelet and Lagos – that is how the right installs itself<\/div>\n

Blogger Javier Sajuria believed that there was a chance for bi-partisan cooperation and unity, when Bachelet invited President-elect Pi\u00f1era to attend the Summit of the Americas. However, this optimism turned to disappointment with the news of the removal of the files. He writes that it was a missed chance to begin the new government in unity and good faith and writes that “history does not begin on March 11 [es]<\/a>” :<\/p>\n

\n

Al sacar esos registros de los sitios, no s\u00f3lo est\u00e1n haciendo un proceso de limpieza de informaci\u00f3n, sino que nos est\u00e1n notificando que no est\u00e1n a la altura de las circunstancias. El Gobierno nos est\u00e1 diciendo en la cara que no le importa el legado de las administraciones anteriores y que, en lo que a ellos respecta, Chile comienza el 11 de marzo de 2010. <\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Existe la esperanza que esto siga trat\u00e1ndose de un error, pero cada vez son menos. Para el resto de nosotros, s\u00f3lo nos sirve continuar exigiendo una soluci\u00f3n de este tema que, por menor que parezca en estos d\u00edas atormentados, no ser\u00e1 menor el d\u00eda de ma\u00f1ana, cuando queramos reconstruir nuestra historia. Son estos peque\u00f1os actos los que nos hablan de las actitudes del nuevo Gobierno, de la prepotencia con que realizan ciertas acciones y de sus inesperadas consecuencias. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

By removing those records from the sites, not only are they going through a process of information cleansing, but they are telling us that they are not up to the circumstances (continuing the policies of previous administrations). The Government is telling us to our faces that it does not care about the legacy of previous administrations and that in their opinion, Chile begins on March 11, 2010.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

There is hope that this is only an error, but more and more there is less hope. For the rest of us, all that is left is to continue to demand a solution to this issue, however unlikely it may seem during these difficult days, it will be more difficult when we want to reconstruct our history. These are small actions that reveal the attitudes of the new Government, of the arrogance with which they carry out certain actions and their unexpected consequences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sajuria offers alternatives, such as handing over the files to the Libraries, Archives and Museums Directorate (Dibam), so that they can archive the information. This would allow the public to access the information as needed.<\/p>\n

Blogger Luis Ramirez concurs that the cleansing does not appear to be caused by coincidence or over-zealousness, but rather as a political statement [es]<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\n

Me consta que esta desaparici\u00f3n forzada de la historia no fue un \u201cerror t\u00e9cnico\u201d. Habl\u00e9 con dos personas (una del nuevo gobierno y otra del antiguo) que me confirmaron que efectivamente esta situaci\u00f3n se produjo. <\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

No es un tema de racionalidad, es un tema de ser respetuosos y emp\u00e1ticos con esa parte de la naci\u00f3n que no vot\u00f3 por ellos y que son, ni m\u00e1s ni menos, que casi el 50% de la poblaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Para decirlo con toda claridad: una pol\u00edtica de eliminaci\u00f3n sistem\u00e1tica de la memoria hist\u00f3rica de los anteriores gobiernos, no es compatible con la unidad nacional. No pueden pretender borrarnos.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

I know that this forced disappearance of history was not a “technical error.” I spoke with two persons (one from the new government and another from the previous government) that confirmed to me that this situation actually occurred.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

It is not a matter of rationality, but a matter of being respectful and sympathetic to that part of the nation that did not vote for them and they are, neither more nor less than about 50% of the population. <\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

To put it clearly: a policy of systematic elimination of the historical memory of the previous governments is not compatible with national unity. You cannot try to erase us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Montserrat Nichol\u00e1s of the blog Curvas Pol\u00edticas [es]<\/em> provides her thoughts on the situation calling it “website burning.”
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

As\u00ed, Pi\u00f1era (seguramente sin quererlo) inaugur\u00f3 lo que antes solo se conoc\u00eda como “quema de libros”, y que hoy hemos querido llamar “quema-webs”.<\/p>\n

Adem\u00e1s de demostrar una falta de buenos modales y de no entender la Presidencia misma como un espacio continuo dentro de la tradici\u00f3n republicana, lo quema-web es altamente nocivo para el acceso a la informaci\u00f3n y la estampa de la Historia del pa\u00eds.<\/p>\n

Entendemos que se quiera exhibir una fuerza resolutiva y se quiera disipar cualquier relaci\u00f3n con el gobierno anterior pero borrar contenidos que son creados con fondos p\u00fablicos (por muy insignificantes que sean) y emitidos desde la Presidencia, no es m\u00e1s que borrar la Historia misma y obstruir el acceso, deliberadamente.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Thus, Pi\u00f1era (certainly unwittingly) initiated what was previously only known as “book burning ” and what we might call today “website burning.” <\/p>\n

In addition to demonstrating a lack of good manners and for not understanding the Presidency as a space of continuity within the Republican tradition, website burning is highly harmful, with regards to the access to information and to the image of the country's history.<\/p>\n

We understand that you want to show a resolute force and want to dispel any relationship with the previous government, but deleting content that has been created with public funds (however insignificant they may be) and emitted from the Presidency amounts to nothing more than erasing history itself and deliberately obstructing access.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

However, Patagon comments and points out that the information might have just changed locations [es]<\/a>, and that people are getting carried away:<\/p>\n

\n

no sea paran\u00f3ico e inf\u00f3rmele a su amiga que el sitio del “Gobierno de Chile” es para mostrar eso, informaci\u00f3n referente al gobierno de chile no de “Los Gobiernos de Chile”. Y evidentemente ese sitio no es el lugar id\u00f3neo para preservar nuestra historia. Yo me imagino que la administraci\u00f3n saliente se encarg\u00f3 de poner la informaci\u00f3n hist\u00f3rica donde corresponde. <\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

los gobiernos son quienes administran el estado en un periodo determinado de tiempo, por lo tanto es natural que la Web de un gobierno mantenga solo la informaci\u00f3n que \u00e9ste estima importante y en este sentido, eliminar contenidos podr\u00eda en el peor de los casos ser un error, pero de ninguna manera debiera significar alg\u00fan tipo de censura.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Don't be paranoid and tell your friend that the site “Government of Chile” is for to show that, information relating to the government of Chile and not of the “governments of Chile.” Evidently that site is the not suitable place to preserve our history. I imagine that the outgoing administration commissioned to place the historical information where it belongs.<\/p>\n

The governments are the ones that administer the state for a determined period of time, and it is natural that the website that the government administers should only contain information that they feel is important, and in this sense, eliminating content could be in the worst of cases – an error, but in no way should it mean that it is some type of censorship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Other commenters like Felipe Zu\u00f1iga point out that new governments in other countries [es]<\/a>, like the United States, did not leave the information from previous governments on their new websites when they took office.<\/p>\n

Regardless whether the elimination of the content was deliberate, an error, or whether it was relocated to another place, the changes in the website has stirred up debate during a historical transitional period in Chilean politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a number of official Chilean government websites, such as the Chile Government [es] or Presidential Photos sites, no document older than March 12, 2010 can be found. Information belonging the previous government is not longer available. For example, the entire photo archive from the governments of Michele Bachelet and Ricardo Lagos are no longer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}