Friday, March 29

Press associations demand explanations for the Government’s veto of critical media


Madrid

Updated:

Keep

The Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE), the Madrid Press Association (APM) and Reporters Without Borders Spain (RSF-Spain) demand explanations from the government
after the veto of several media outlets with an editorial line critical of the Executive, who were not invited to an informative briefing on the European recovery funds for the coronavirus.

This Tuesday, ABC was excluded from a call to which other media such as Cope, Onda Cero, ‘El Mundo’, ‘La Razón’, ‘The Objective’, ‘Libertad Digital’, and the Servimedia and Colpisa news agencies were also not invited. After several of them denounced the veto in their information, from the Secretary of State for Communication They alleged that they had not been summoned for reasons of space, despite the fact that hours later a press conference was held in the same complex, where all the media were able to participate.

The president of FAPE, Nemesio Rodriguez, assures ABC that both from his association and from the APM they have transferred their “discomfort” to the Secretary of State for Communication, Francesc Vallès, with whom they coincidentally had arranged a meeting today, Wednesday morning. Precisely, at the meeting they were already thinking of throwing recent episodes in his face, such as the balance-of-the-year press conference of Pedro Sanchez, on December 29, in which only six media outlets were given the floor: La Sexta, la Ser, ‘El País’, ‘eldiario.es’, and the public TVE and Efe. “There must be plurality and access to information must be guaranteed for everyone,” Rodríguez ditches.

Also Read  Teen rapper accused of shooting NYC cop could be released on $200,000 bail
“We have transferred the discomfort produced to the Secretary of State”
Nemesio Rodriguez , president of FAPE

Along the same lines, the spokesman for the APM, Luis Ayllon, in conversation with this newspaper: “We must insist: we must demand that the Government respect plurality and that everyone can be on equal terms.” The latter responds to another ‘a posteriori’ argument of Moncloa, from where it has been justified that there will be other meetings with those media, without having set a date or having previously informed them that the previous ‘briefing’ would transcend.

“We demand that the Government respect plurality and insist that it must summon everyone”
Luis Ayllon , MPA spokesperson

The Secretary of State for Communication, according to the sources consulted, has limited himself to telling the FAPE and the APM the same thing: that the Executive “does not veto anyone”, that it was a matter of “space” and that “there will be more meetings ” in the future. The arguments are also not convincing to RSF-Spain, which is preparing a condemnation statement. According to its vice president, Edith Rodriguez Cachera, the capacity excuse is “ridiculous”. In statements to this newspaper, he demands “plausible” explanations from the Government and expresses his “disagreement and perplexity” with what happened. «They are vices of the past. We thought that these tricks had changed and we see that they had not, “he laments.

«The capacity excuse does not hold. We need plausible explanations»
Edith Rodriguez Cachera , vice president of RSF-Spain

On a political level, as this newspaper widely reported this Wednesday, the PP Y citizens have reacted against the veto and have denounced it both in the
European Parliament
, through the MEPs Dolors Montserrat Y Adrian Vazquez, respectively, as in the
Congress
. The PP spokeswoman in the Lower House, Cuca Gamarra, has demanded the appearance of the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanos, While Ines Arrimadas Y William Diaz, of Cs, have registered a battery of questions to the coalition government. Even a member of the Executive, such as the Republican Gabriel Rufian, has admitted that it seems wrong to him that “the media that ask questions, that do journalism” is vetoed.

Also Read  ETA prisoner groups call for the end of the exceptional prison policy

See them
comments


www.abc.es

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *