Much backtracking this evening from the political controllers of RTVE -Spain’s national broadcaster- after it was discovered they had voted to give themselves executive access over the news software used by the corporation to generate its newsfeeds.
In essence, this meant that the politicians would have had editorial control over all of RTVE’s news, allowing them to censure what they pleased and promote what they felt important.
RTVE has a strange committee of non-executive directors which are supposed to oversee the corporation, but are not currently allowed to meddle in the editorial decisions. These directors are appointed via the main political parties -PSOE, PP, CiU, EC, IU- and the unions UGT and CCOO.
The measure was proposed by the PP directors, supported from some, but,and this is the clincher, the rest abstained, meaning the motion passed without any of the socialists getting their hands dirty.
However, journalists at the broadcaster were so infuriated by this that they leaked the story to the media -obviously, RTVE could not report on the change without the directors approval- and fury erupted over this measure “not seen since Franco’s day”. And Juan Ramón Lucas, presenter of flagship radio RNE programme “En dias como hoy” changed his theme tune to the one used for decades by Franco’s official daily news programme, NO-DO, in a protest measure.
It looks like the measure will be overturned by the same directors tomorrow.