The Supreme Court has declared final the annulment of the dismissal of Bernat Barrachina, the TVE scriptwriter who used the label “Leonor is leaving Spain, like her grandfather” to illustrate information about the Princess’ studies abroad, in reference to the stay of the King Emeritus in Abu Dhabi.
In an order dated November 7, and made known this Friday by Vertele, the Supreme Court dismisses RTVE’s appeal regarding the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) that required the immediate reinstatement of the scriptwriter in its job. There is no appeal against the decision of the Supreme Court, so the sentence is declared final.
In June 2022, the TSJM revoked a first judicial decision that supported the dismissal. On the other hand, it ordered the worker to be reinstated and paid his wages since his dismissal, as well as to compensate him with 10,000 euros for moral damages.
The ruling recognized that the label used in the magazine La Hora de la 1 was “a clearly inappropriate and impertinent note, which, far from contributing anything to the news, clouded and obscured it”, and that it was also “biased”, but considered that ” “It did not contain any expression with an objectively insulting or humiliating meaning towards the Princess, whose honesty was not really called into question.”
“Without prejudice to the critical judgment that the label may deserve due to its simplistic, crude and biased nature, it did not transgress the limits of the right to freedom of expression admissible in the employment relationship,” the ruling concluded.
The dismissal was accompanied by a statement from the management of RTVE that said: “The sole Provisional Administrator of RTVE, Rosa María Mateo, deeply regrets the serious error that occurred this morning during the broadcast of the program La Hora de La 1 and has “immediate measures have been taken to ensure that those responsible for this mistake are relieved of their positions.” Mateo ended up giving explanations of what happened in the Cortes.
