The President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezremains committed to exercising tight control over the media. Therefore, now, it will impose a media log to know their owners and which people, companies or administrations finance them. The Executive, as explained this Tuesday by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasunwill mandate the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and the National Communications Market Commission (CNMC) to carry out this registration.
Urtasun has explained that they have “chosen the CNMC to be an autonomous and independent body” to carry out this registration. Although this will require a reform of the National Communications Market Commission to be able to carry out this new task. With this, Moncloa wants to know in detail who is behind the ownership of the publishing companies of the media published in our country.
The will of the Executive is to have, through the creation of this registry, public information about its property and the advertising investment that they receive, within the framework of their Action Plan for Democracy“to guarantee greater transparency and independence in the media.” Moncloa will require the CNMC to “establish the criteria that define what a media outlet is, among other platforms, whose purpose is not to inform.”
In addition to this registration, the Government also wants to limit the income in the form of advertising that the media receive at both the public and private levels. In the first case, establishing the ban on public financing if guidelines and the duty of annual publication of advertising investment by administrations are not followed. “This is information that today is either not presented or presented in an opaque manner,” he indicated, later adding that from the implementation of this regulation, all public institutions must publish this information “in a visible, clear and transparent”.
The Executive is also going to reform the Institutional Advertising LawAs already announced by the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezto introduce criteria of “transparency, proportionality and non-discrimination in their allocation.” Urtasun has clarified that these criteria will be developed based on work with experts, the communication sector and parliamentary groups.
This same law, as the Minister of Culture has advanced, will be reformed to guarantee that the audience measurement and the methodology they use comply with the principles of transparency, impartiality, inclusivity, proportionality, non-discrimination, comparability and verifiability. “We are going to reform the law so that hearings cannot be falsified by engaging in practices that alter royal visits,” she stressed.
However, the social-communist government seeks intimidate businessmen who participate in the viability of the media, as long as they do not follow the guidelines set by La Moncloa. Sánchez dresses everything in an “ambitious plan” to “improve our democracy”, according to the minister’s words Felix Bolañosat a time when journalistic investigations have put the president and his wife in check, Begoña Gómezcharged based on certain information.
