Political Interference in the Spanish and Catalan Public Service Media: Attempts to Reform and Resistance to Change (2006–2017)

Abstract

The chapter discusses political instrumentalisation of, and interference in, public service media in Spain. State intervention in the media systems of Southern European democracies has been characterised by a logic of clientelism and instrumentalisation of public service media, as concluded, among other authors, by Hallin and Mancini (2004). With the aim of increasing the autonomy and the independence of PSM in Spain, after more than two decades of complaints and denounciations of political interference, in the mid-2000s the Spanish State and several regional governments, such as the Catalan one, adopted encouraging legislative changes affecting the governance models of their PSM. However, in the context of the economic and social crisis that broke out in 2008 and of the increasing political tensions associated with Catalan nationalism, regulatory counter-reforms were passed in 2012 that enabled parliamentary majorities underpinning the Spanish and the Catalan governments to appoint the members of the PSM governing bodies. The chapter examines these highly politicized editorial appointments and numerous complaints of political manipulation practices present in both cases. It also explores an ongoing debate about the need to prevent the political interference in PSM for them to fulfil their democratic role.

Translated by Steve Norris