The interim president of RTVE, Elena Sánchez, appeared on Tuesday at the Mixed Commission for Parliamentary control of RTVE, which was held in the Senate. To the questions of the parliamentarians, the president of the public Entity has detailed the investment that the coverage of the Eurovision festival and the candidacy of Blanca Paloma from Elche will entail.
The president of RTVE explained that more than 653,000 euros will be allocated to, among other things, the candidate’s video clip, the daily programs and podcasts scheduled on RTVE Play during the festival week, the broadcast of the two semifinals and the final, and the presence in the city where it is held, Liverpool, of the team that covers the event.
On the other hand, Sánchez has denied that the Corporation receives instructions from the Government when it comes to reporting on the Mediator case or the reductions in sentences as a result of the ‘only yes is yes’ Law, given the criticisms that the PP has made about these topics. “The news services do not receive instructions from the Government,” Sánchez assured.
The ‘popular’ senator Sergio Ramos, who has described the Mediator case as “the biggest case of corruption of the PSOE”, has questioned whether viewers of public television news know the face of his main researcher, the socialist Juan Bernardo Fuentes, known as ‘Tito Berni’, given the absence of news on this issue and has asked Sánchez if he had received calls from senior officials in the Canary Islands or Moncloa to influence it.
“The answer is no”, has indicated the president of the Corporation, who has explained that the Corporation found out about the case “the same day as the rest of the media” when “the resignation” of ‘Tito Berni’ was made public and that RTVE’s news programs in the Canary Islands opened their regional news programs with this theme. According to Sánchez, it has also been reported on the news or on the 24-hour channel and the web. In total, as indicated, the morning news and the newscasts have offered, between February 14 and March 17, 183 pieces of information, while in the 24-hour Channel the estimated time dedicated to the subject in this period has been about six hours.
Sánchez has also highlighted that the case has been dealt with in programs and magazines, as well as in RNE which, as he has pointed out, has dealt “profusely” with the case. In the same way, he has indicated that the RTVE website has a tab dedicated exclusively to “the keys” to this topic.
The president of RTVE has also rejected the criticism of the PP that accuses her of informing “sporadically” of the reductions in sentences as a result of the Law of the ‘only yes is yes’ and has explained that they have echoed the figures of revisions of the CGPJ and “an open debate” has taken place in current events in which, as he has indicated, “the most relevant cases” have been dealt with. “This problem has been dealt with in 33 programs,” she assured, before pointing out that “differences between government partners” on the reform of the standard have also been reported.
However, this response has not been enough for the PP deputy Tristana Moraleja, who has assured that to know the number of aggressors benefited by the ‘yes is yes’, one cannot trust RTVE and has accused the President of the Government in delaying the reform of the norm and “thinking of himself more than the safety of victims and women”. For Moraleja, RTVE is “trying to avoid a bad drink” for Pedro Sánchez with this topic.
Criticism of RTVE’s coverage has also come through Vox and, specifically, from its deputy Víctor Sánchez del Real, who has lamented that, while the Corporation obtained “spectacular” audience data with the motion of censure, “it They dedicated themselves to analyzing the session with their “regime” commentators who, as they have denounced, came to “disrespect with criticism or with words in some cases rude” towards the Cortes.
For his part, Sánchez has celebrated the work of the professionals to cover this event, as well as the data obtained from the audience that, as he has indicated, exceeded the coverage of the previous motion, which took place in 2020.
During the session, he had to face other criticisms of RTVE’s coverage, such as that related to the “disproportionate coverage of the Government” that, in the opinion of the Ciudadanos deputy Guillermo Díez, is carried out; or the “lack of respect” that, according to the representative of the PP Belén Hoyo, was committed against the Valencians by “relegating” the closure of Las Fallas to La 2 and to a deferred schedule “when Spain was sleeping”.
In the first case, Sánchez has spoken of “fair coverage” carried out by professionals who value it based on “importance”, “usefulness” for the citizen, “newness”, “interest” or “subsequent route”. As for the second complaint, the president of the Corporation has pointed out that the monitoring of the Valencian festivals has been “greater” than the previous year “on RTVE.
The main opposition party has also criticized the criteria of the public entity to echo in its news in other media, especially digital. In the opinion of his representative Francisco Lacalle, his method is to choose those with the greatest “coincidence”, “proximity” or “closeness” to Pedro Sánchez, a statement that the president of RTVE has rejected. As she has defended, it is a decision made by “professionals” choosing those who “stand out for their credibility, prestige” and with “a plural vision of current events”.
Meanwhile, Vox has questioned Sánchez for the “bad practices” of the RTVE sports section of which, as indicated by the spokesman for this commission, Manuel Mariscal, he has learned through his own workers. The deputy has spoken of “an unmotivated staff”, of “a lack of project” or of “poor management of the teams”. In addition, he has accused RTVE of “marginalizing” sports such as hunting, fishing or boxing for “sectarian” reasons.
“The sports section does an excellent job,” said Sánchez, who pointed out that RTVE is in “a magnificent moment” on this issue, recalling that the entity will broadcast all the matches of the men’s national team until 2026, that the Eurocopa of this sport will return to TVE 20 years later and that the women’s edition will also be broadcast in 2025. In addition to what he considers “a very wide offer” in other sports.
The Socialists have also asked about the situation of the oppositions for RTVE, to which Sánchez explained that at the beginning of the year the bases were signed for 28 of the 34 standard occupations, which this Monday signed another three, related “to engineering and issues technicians” and that this Tuesday he will sign those related to informers that imply 371 places, “34% of the offer” launched by RTVE.
If these oppositions come out, as indicated by Sánchez, 91% of the total places would be covered. In addition, he has pointed out that after the pre-registration of some 10,000 people for the bases already signed, it is expected that the total number of candidates will be between 20,000 and 30,000.
Regarding the wage gap that, as denounced by the spokesman for Unidas Podemos in this body, Joan Mena, is registered among the Corporation’s workers and which reached 6.1% in terms of salary in 2021 and 12.9% in In relation to the complements, Sánchez attributes it to the fact that “the average length of service” in the company is greater in men and believes that the evolution of the workforce and “the current trend of leaves and retirements” also led mostly by men, ” It’s going to naturally balance that gap.”
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
