There is news that goes almost unnoticed, but that says more about the country than any speech in Parliament. The possibility of VASP ceasing to distribute newspapers and magazines in eight districts is one such piece of news: discreet, technical, apparently inevitable and deeply political. One of those silent signs that announce not just a crisis in the sector, but a slow erosion of the idea of democracy itself.
We are easily sold on pragmatic explanations: it is no longer worth distributing, the kiosks have closed, paper is not sold, people read everything on their cell phones. Perhaps. But this “maybe” is insufficient when we talk about something as basic as access to information. And it is insufficient, especially when the digital argument emerges as a universal solution for a country that is not, and has never been, universal in its access conditions. No: not everyone has internet, not everyone has a network, not everyone has devices, not everyone lives close to a working library or a cultural center that survives.
What is happening in the interior of the country is not new, but it also doesn’t usually make headlines: libraries closed, schools losing services, health centers operating at capacity, transport that never arrives, cultural projects that survive through stubbornness. What is at stake is not just geographic distance, it is political distance, a form of abandonment that has become routine. And, like all routines, it became normalized to the point that we almost stopped noticing it. But when a territory is left without newspapers, without this simple gesture of someone arriving with current information under their arm, abandonment becomes literal.
And here comes misinformation. Because the absence of journalism does not create silence; creates noise. It opens up space for rumors, for quick narratives, for indignation without context. Those who live far from the centers tend to feel, and rightly so, that they also live far from the State’s priorities. And when access to information weakens, democracy weakens with it. The revolt that explodes at the polls, often read as “anti-systemic”, is, in fact, a cry for attention. It is not born out of nowhere: it is born from this continuous shrinking of the State and public services, from this deficit of listening and presence.
We often say that we are the State, but we rarely think about what that implies. If it is us, then we are also responsible for ensuring that an entire country has access to journalism, culture, health, education. Not out of charity, but out of constitutionality. A democracy without information is not democracy; It’s administration. A simulacrum of participation that leaves out those who live far from the concrete and big newsrooms.
So yes: the news about VASP seems small, but it is not. It’s another piece in a dangerous puzzle that slowly brings us closer to a country where some can choose how they get information and others have to resign themselves to receiving what’s left. And there is nothing democratic about that.
Journalist and writer