Spain's cowardly purge of the journalists who ask difficult questions
The dismissal of journalists at Spain's state-funded broadcaster RTVE shows how Mariano Rajoy's government has lost the plot
Spain's prime minister
Mariano Rajoy is convinced that government's unpopularity 'is the state
media's fault, staffed as it is with unsympathetic journos who keep
talking about cutbacks and unemployment.' Photograph: Javier
Soriano/AFP/Getty Images
"No news is good news", the old dictum goes. But someone should
explain to Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister, that it only qualifies
as good news if there really is no news. This doesn't mean firing as
many journalists as you can. Even if you sack almost everybody from TV
and radio, as will soon be the case if the purge
of Spanish public-sector broadcasting is to continue, there will still
be news, and that news will presumably be just as bad as it has been up
until now. Getting a new cohort of faithful journalists to suppress or
distort the facts won't turn it into good news; it will turn it into
what is technically known as "lies".
Ana Pastor, Xabier Fortes, Juan Ramón Lucas, Fran Llorente … the casualty list from the Spanish national broadcaster (RTVE) reads like a competition for the most popular journalist in the country. But as the spin doctors would put it, state broadcasting in Spain has never been about the popularity of the channel, it's about the popularity of the government. And with polls already indicating a 16% fall in support since March, this government seems to be running low on that.
And yet to Rajoy it's simply unbelievable that his austerity policies – harsh, unpopular and, what is probably worse, ineffective – may have anything to do with the quick erosion of his political capital. He and his advisers are convinced that it is the national broadcaster's fault, staffed as it is with unsympathetic journalists who keep talking about cutbacks and unemployment. That the government's reaction has been to make them unemployed and to cut back on RTVE budgets is an irony that seems to have escaped ministers.
Purges are not news at RTVE. But in 2006, at least, a decision was made to put an end to this Tony Soprano-like approach to human resources. A new law was passed that required a two-thirds parliamentary majority for key appointments in RTVE. The government has seen it as a matter of the utmost urgency to scrap that law and return to the good old vendetta system. That, rather than the personal fate of a particular number of news anchors, is what is worrying, because this Putin-esque "changing the rules of the game as you go" game is quickly becoming the government's only firm policy. It has also tried to change the way in which judges are selected, and is toying with the idea of touching up the electoral law, without seeking any consensus with the rest of political forces, in order to tip the scales in its favour in an upcoming regional election.
But then there's also the way in which journalism is understood, or misunderstood, in Spain. Maybe the sacked journalists are left-leaning or progressive. So what? While everybody expects reporters working for private media organisations to be biased to the point of militancy (as they are), those working for the state media are not supposed to have any views at all. Actually, the opposite is true: all views should be represented. That's the point of having a public media – those who lose elections pay taxes too.
Spain has always struggled with impartiality and objectivity. Impartiality – never taking sides – is neither possible nor desirable in journalism. Objectivity is what is needed, and that means simply handling the raw data with care and with honesty.
That is why it's interesting that most of those who have been dismissed are interviewers, a job that only makes sense when the journalist takes the opposing side. Politicians in Spain are not used to being contradicted, or even pressed to answer a question. They expect the interviewer to nod sheepishly while they deliver their speech, and most do. The newly jobless represented a new trend in Spanish political journalism: they asked real questions to our political leaders. That's why they were popular. And that's why the government, increasingly, is not.
Ana Pastor, Xabier Fortes, Juan Ramón Lucas, Fran Llorente … the casualty list from the Spanish national broadcaster (RTVE) reads like a competition for the most popular journalist in the country. But as the spin doctors would put it, state broadcasting in Spain has never been about the popularity of the channel, it's about the popularity of the government. And with polls already indicating a 16% fall in support since March, this government seems to be running low on that.
And yet to Rajoy it's simply unbelievable that his austerity policies – harsh, unpopular and, what is probably worse, ineffective – may have anything to do with the quick erosion of his political capital. He and his advisers are convinced that it is the national broadcaster's fault, staffed as it is with unsympathetic journalists who keep talking about cutbacks and unemployment. That the government's reaction has been to make them unemployed and to cut back on RTVE budgets is an irony that seems to have escaped ministers.
Purges are not news at RTVE. But in 2006, at least, a decision was made to put an end to this Tony Soprano-like approach to human resources. A new law was passed that required a two-thirds parliamentary majority for key appointments in RTVE. The government has seen it as a matter of the utmost urgency to scrap that law and return to the good old vendetta system. That, rather than the personal fate of a particular number of news anchors, is what is worrying, because this Putin-esque "changing the rules of the game as you go" game is quickly becoming the government's only firm policy. It has also tried to change the way in which judges are selected, and is toying with the idea of touching up the electoral law, without seeking any consensus with the rest of political forces, in order to tip the scales in its favour in an upcoming regional election.
But then there's also the way in which journalism is understood, or misunderstood, in Spain. Maybe the sacked journalists are left-leaning or progressive. So what? While everybody expects reporters working for private media organisations to be biased to the point of militancy (as they are), those working for the state media are not supposed to have any views at all. Actually, the opposite is true: all views should be represented. That's the point of having a public media – those who lose elections pay taxes too.
Spain has always struggled with impartiality and objectivity. Impartiality – never taking sides – is neither possible nor desirable in journalism. Objectivity is what is needed, and that means simply handling the raw data with care and with honesty.
That is why it's interesting that most of those who have been dismissed are interviewers, a job that only makes sense when the journalist takes the opposing side. Politicians in Spain are not used to being contradicted, or even pressed to answer a question. They expect the interviewer to nod sheepishly while they deliver their speech, and most do. The newly jobless represented a new trend in Spanish political journalism: they asked real questions to our political leaders. That's why they were popular. And that's why the government, increasingly, is not.
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