RTVE, threatened | Television | THE COUNTRY

There are more subtle ways to threaten. “I think RTVE is going to lose the elections. And I hope that the leaders of that party resign the next day,” tweeted Esteban González Pons, deputy secretary of the PP. “Better not to go. I neither see it, nor go.” He wrote it after its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was asked on the set some uncomfortable questions and observations, which the journalists of that house had to ask. And he said it before Feijóo stood up, as he had announced, at the four-party debate that went to three in Torrespaña.

I think that @rtve is going to lose the elections. And I hope that the next day the leaders of that party will resign, as is done in all parties when they lose the elections in which they stand.
Better not go. I neither see it nor go.

— González Pons (@gonzalezpons) July 17, 2023

Xabier Fortes, who has conducted with skill and judgment two electoral debates on RTVE in which what was said was understood, responded with reticence in The night in 24 hours: “If you don’t see us, I’m very sorry for you, I think you’re missing out.” And he added: “We are not any political party either. We are a public television, of professionals, of journalists. Sometimes we are right, and sometimes we are wrong. Today specifically, our Silvia Intxaurrondo has done what she has to do.” Intxaurrondo had pointed out to Feijóo, with the data in hand, that it was not true that the PP governments always updated pensions in accordance with the CPI.

In an ideal world, RTVE’s independence would be protected like that of the BBC or, say, the Bank of Spain. Those responsible would be elected by a broad and transversal parliamentary pact (that has only happened twice: when the appointment of Alberto Oliart was agreed with Zapatero in 2009 and when José Manuel Pérez Tornero was elected in 2021; both ended badly). Their mandates would not be revocable just because the Moncloa tenant has changed. But we cannot expect State pacts around an object of desire for the parties when they have not even been able to renew the judicial bodies as mandated by the Constitution. Feijóo said today that he would like “a more consensual direction” for RTVE; That doesn’t fit very well with how Pons expects heads to roll.

In the country in which we know we live, and which is not ideal, we take it for granted that if the Government changes, the heads of RTVE and most of its faces will do so, that the targeted journalists will disappear from the screen. And we are content to hope that those who replace them do not respond to militant profiles, that they let the good professionals of that house do their thing, that black times like those we experienced in the very tragic days of March 2004 do not return.

If González Pons never watches TVE, he is not alone: there are many more who only want to see and listen to those who agree with them. But we must demand that he respect the viewers who, under different governments, have chosen to get their information on public television, because of their know-how, rather than on any private television. We ask you to respect the journalism that we recognize. Which is sometimes uncomfortable, of course, or it wouldn’t be journalism. RTVE has a mission, but it is not to keep the politicians who decide on it happy.