A Communication Problem

It's become a common feature for almost all governments with popularity problems to blame their troubles on poor communication rather than their policies. Spain's government is no exception to this, with the governing Partido Popular preparing a publicity campaign to attempt to justify Spain's disastrous economic course. Many of the PP's own supporters are deeply unhappy with some of the government's decisions, perhaps not surprising when you consider that Rajoy's administration has now broken almost every promise that the PP made before the elections. Party supporters are left trying to defend everything which they so loudly opposed when in opposition. 

There is another aspect to the PP's strategy. The last few weeks have seen a growing chorus from government friendly media for something to be done about the state television company RTVE. Not having much of a democratic tradition means that Spain's right is unable to understand how a state owned broadcaster isn't directly supportive of their government. Any report which smacks too much of pluralism or which doesn't toe the party line is automatically accused of anti-PP bias. The right wing got their way last Friday, as the government changed the law concerning the appointment of RTVE's governing body so that they can put the corporation under their control.

It would be going too far to describe RTVE as being independent, but the situation that existed until Friday at least meant that a single party couldn't impose their political control. Zapatero's administration had changed the law in such a way that that two largest national parties had to agree a consensus candidate for the presidency of RTVE, and neither party could have an outright majority on the governing board. That goes out of the window now, if there is no agreement on a consensus candidate then the government can impose whoever they want with their parliamentary majority. The pretext of austerity has been used to remove representatives of organisations like the unions from the board, allowing the government to appoint the majority.

This threatens to return us to the Aznar era, when RTVE news delivery was kept under tight political control. Although it's unlikely that news bulletins will begin, as they invariably seemed to do in Aznar's time, with the words "el presidente del gobierno ha dicho". Rajoy still seems to be averse to any kind of communication at all, although a more government friendly broadcaster will no doubt show the great leader delivering declarations without of course experiencing anything so uncomfortable as a journalist asking him a question he hasn't been prepared for. This is a move towards the Telemadrid model of television as a political tool, and those RTVE journalists who have demonstrated worrying signs of independence will now be wondering what future they have.

Despite the moves to control RTVE, it's still unlikely that Spanish television will be the chosen platform for breaking the really bad news. For that sort of thing you really need to be a reader of the Frankfurter Allgemeine, or perhaps occasionally the Wall Street Journal. Economy minister Luis de Guindos announces the government's measures first to overseas media, and then eventually the government gets around to telling the Spanish people what is about to happen to them. The latest example was with the additional health and education cuts which were announced first in the German paper. At least the sick can be reassured that when they have to pay more for their medicines it's really just a problem of communication.

#sinpreguntasnocobertura

The way in which the media covers Spanish politics has received a lot of attention recently. Accusations of bias, hard to believe I know, have been freely made and with the country in an election campaign there is a greater focus on the coverage given to each political party. An interview recently on the state channel RTVE 1 with the secretary general of the Partido Popular, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, sparked a big row. De Cospedal backed claims made by other members of her party that the channel's news coverage is biased against the PP. The journalist conducting the panel interview/discussion, Ana Pastor, subsequently came to the defence of her employers.

What made the event unusual and more newsworthy was that Pastor spoke back against the politician. Interviews with Spanish politicians tend to be notoriously soft, and it's extremely rare to see an interviewee being given a hard time. Pastor had already gained some kudos a few months ago for a robust interview she did with the Iranian president, and I remember thinking at the time that it was just a pity that journalists here couldn't do the same with their own politicians. In the case of the De Cospedal interview the PP was naturally outraged that one of their leaders couldn't launch accusations on TV without being being answered. Of course they are more used to the manipulative and servile approach adopted by the regional channels they control, such as Telemadrid or Canal 9 in Valencia.

RTVE may not yet be the model of objective journalistic coverage but there is no doubt that it has been significantly less partial under Zapatero than it was under his predecessor. I still remember the Aznar years and those news bulletins that would almost always begin with the depressing words "el presidente del gobierno ha dicho". The post of head of RTVE was more or less interchangeable with that of being Aznar's press representative, and it was this kind of direct political control that has become the model for the dreadful pseudo news coverage that has become the norm in Madrid and Valencia. Zapatero cannot be accused of operating the same kind of policy and the top job in the corporation was agreed with the PP. The latter party just adopts a standard policy of accusing all the media who do not directly favour them of being biased.

Thankfully, there have also been hopeful signs of resistance from sections of the media to kid glove treatment of politicians. The increasingly common habit of press conferences being called where no questions are permitted from journalists has finally produced a backlash. Many individual journalists and some associations have signed a petition under the name of #sinpreguntasnocobertura where they call upon all members of the profession not to cover political events when journalists are not allowed to ask questions. It's a welcome step against the increasing management of political coverage by the parties, who already get their canned segments of speeches carried automatically by news bulletins. 

Politicians on all sides can act in this way, PP leader Mariano Rajoy seems to give at most a couple of press conferences a year but there are also government ministers who adopt similar tactics with their public declarations. For the campaign to be truly effective it also needs the politically docile sections of the press to back it too. This presents difficulties for a certain brand of journalist. A press interview a few days ago with Valencian president Francisco Camps included a gem from the interviewer about how he didn't want to press Camps too hard on the Gürtel corruption case because he was not a Navy Seal! The battle has to be fought within the profession itself as well as against those who seek to manipulate media coverage in their own interests.

Europe Doesn't Know What It Is Missing

A video of one of the candidates who won't be representing Spain in this year's Eurovision 2010. It's hard to say whether his television career is at an end or whether he will soon be given his own show. Quality television, sin publicidad.



Ever since Rodolfo Chikilicuatre won the right to be the Spanish representative a couple of years ago there have been moves to dilute the amount of popular democracy involved in the selection process so that the winner will be less friki. This year several potentially successful candidates were simply disqualified on a variety of pretexts as soon as it looked as if they might win. Whilst John Cobra almost made it through to the end, the Aznarines weren't even given a chance. There's no justice.

Updated: As it seems that the youtube video has been blocked by RTVE, here is a taste of what is left after the censors have been at work:

1). The song

2). The aftermath

Spanish Television Changes Channels

When Spain's government announced a few months ago that it was relaxing the rules on concentration of ownership for television channels it didn't take long for speculation to start on who was behind the move. The country has gained two new private channels in the last few years, Cuatro and La Sexta, but with the onset of the economic crisis it seems that there wasn't enough money from advertising to sustain so many channels and mergers have come to be seen as the solution. So last week we got the announcement that Cuatro and Telecinco were to become part of the same company in a complicated deal between Grupo Prisa and Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset. This deal effectively brings to an end Prisa's involvement in open access television and also dilutes their ownership of the pay channel Digital+. The company has been looking for ways to deal with its debts and this agreement makes up for them not being able to find a buyer for Digital+. The irony comes from them dealing with Silvio Berlusconi, following the publication by El País a few months ago of photographs from Berlusconi's Sardinian villa which meant that the Prisa paper wasn't exactly top of Silvio's favourite publications.

This is not likely to be the end of the changes, there are also strong rumours that a deal will be reached to merge La Sexta with Antena 3. La Sexta is the newest of Spain's channels, and marked the entry into the television market of Mediapro who seem to have replaced Prisa in the government's affections. Mediapro's influence was crucial in paving the way for the introduction of pay channels on the digital TDT platform, they already had their Gol channel dedicated to football ready to go as soon as the legislation was in place. Incidentally, I'm toying with the idea of an equivalent to the "I Sky" feature in Britain's Private Eye that recorded attempts to hide publicity for Sky TV in pseudo news items in the Murdoch press. Both Público (owned by Mediapro) and El País have been doing much the same in a bid to promote their offerings, particularly for pay to view football.

The merging of the private channels isn't the only change we will see, the state run RTVE is to stop taking advertising on its two channels, another part of the attempt to maximise revenues for the private channels. The loss of revenue for RTVE will largely be made up with a levy on the private channels and with contributions from the telecommunications companies. RTVE is also said to be moving away from attempts to compete for ratings with a remit that is more oriented towards domestic TV productions and films.

Digital Liberties

Having finally got round to buying my shiny new television I discovered to my delight that I am now able to watch Libertad Digital TV! Frankly, it's been a bit disappointing so far, every time I turn to it I just seem to get those tacky home shopping type adverts that you get on lots of these new channels. For things like vacuum cleaner attachments that can see round corners. Maybe the Reverend Losantos is still on holiday in Miami where he wishes pain and suffering on all of his many enemies.

The reason I am able to get this channel is because I live in the enlightened Comunidad de Madrid where television licences are distributed on the basis of loyalty to the Condesa. Those of you living in areas of Spain where TeleLosantos is not available should know that this is because you live in a region controlled by rojos, masones or nazionalistas. Or perhaps a combination of all three. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted on any developments.

Fago

I don’t normally watch many things on Spanish television apart from news, football and films. However, I’ve made an exception for a short series running on Monday nights on La Primera based on the killing at the beginning of last year of the mayor of a tiny village called Fago in the Aragonese Pyrenees.

The series portrays a village divided in two between those who support their mayor and those who hate him. The mayor himself, an outsider from the big city of Zaragoza, is clearly not using his powers in an impartial way and his refusal to register newcomers as residents in the village only helps to increase resentment. When he is murdered on an isolated road the list of suspects is not short as there are plenty of people with reasons to dislike him.

The odd thing about this series is not just that it is based on real events; it is also the fact that the man charged with the murder of the mayor of Fago is still awaiting trial. In Britain I think it would be completely impossible for a television company to produce a series about such events before the trial takes place; the principal difference being that the trial would take place with a jury. Here in Spain the series had to be approved by a judge after the Guardia Civil were sent to seize the tapes of the production before it could be shown. The family of the dead man wanted to stop the series being shown. Even though the names of the main characters have been changed, the name of the village is the same and it is completely clear that the fictional series is based on the actual events that occurred.

The village only has 34 registered inhabitants, and they got completely fed up with the invasion of journalists and the curious that they suffered following the killing of their mayor. It is a feeling that can only be reinforced by seeing their village portrayed in this way on prime time television every Monday for three weeks.