This Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the Action Plan for Democracy announced by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. This media plan is composed of three axes and a list of 31 measures to address this, among which some 19 measures stand out.
The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, explained in the press conference after the Council of Ministers the three axes and some of the measures, in addition to emphasizing that the measures of the plan include: legislative initiativeswhich will have to be approved by Congress and the Senate. For his part, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, completed and explained some of the measures of the second axis, intended for the media.
In addition, the government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, confirmed nominations of Mercedes González and Luis Pedro Marco de la Peñaas Director General of the Civil Guard and new President of Adif.
First axis directed towards the executive power
He first axis One of the objectives of the Action Plan for Democracy, as Bolaños expressed, will be to expand and improve the quality of government information, which is why the first section will be directed to the executive branch.
In this section, Bolaños announced a bill on open administration, to “facilitate transparency and accountability.”
In addition, the accountability of all governments, the independent authority for the protection of whistleblowers, will be approved, which includes the creation of new specialized units within the prosecution service to “fight more effectively”.
Another reform is that of the Official Secrets Act, with the aim, according to the government, of making it “in line with neighbouring countries”.
Second axis directed towards the media
He second axis The government’s media plan aims to strengthen the transparency, plurality and responsibility of the media in order to “guarantee truthful information”.
At this point, Bolaños announced two amendments to the organic laws, the right to honor and the right to rectification, which he said “have clearly become obsolete.” In addition, the Minister of the Presidency highlighted the intention to carry out a comprehensive reform of the Penal Code that will address crimes of freedom of expression that affect state institutions and those that occur against religious sentiments.
For his part, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, detailed ten measures of the media plan.
For this reason, the government will create a media registry that will cover public investments, their ownership and the publicity they receive, and which will be reviewed by the National Commission for Securities Markets and Competition.
The second measure is the establishment of an obligation for the annual publication of advertising investments by public administrations, by which all public administrations must publish them in a visible and clear manner.
The head of culture announced two reforms to the law on institutional advertising to introduce criteria of transparency, proportionality and non-discrimination and to ensure that audience measurement systems and their methodology cannot falsify data with practices that alter real visits to media sites. There will also be positive discrimination measures for media that are in co-official languages.
In order to “protect journalists”, the Government will promote the law on professional secrecy of journalists, which includes a legal guarantee of protection of sources. For Urtasun, this is a “fundamental” element of the plan.
In this sense, they will follow the European AntiSlapp directive to protect journalists from external harassment and abusive and unfounded requests for the exercise of their work.
The government also announced that it hopes to resolve the anomaly known as the Gag Law, and end sanctions against journalists who cover the actions of state security forces and organs.
The last two measures explained by Urtasun at the press conference after the Council of Ministers are the limits of the funding that public administrations can devote to the media and the revision of the regulatory framework to guarantee political pruralism and face the “media oligopolies”.
Third axis aimed at the legislative and electoral system
He third and final axis The media plan will seek to strengthen the transparency of the Spanish legislative power and electoral system.
For this reason, they will promote, through a reform of the regulations of the General Courts, the obligatory nature of the annual celebration of the Debate of the Nation, as well as an organic law of the electoral regime by which it will be obligatory for candidates to attend an electoral debate.
In addition, the law will require election surveys to publish microdata.
Bolaños announced a law on interest groups, a “lobbying law”, to strengthen the obligation for political parties to publish their accounts and for deputies and senators to make public their declarations of assets. This is a measure that already exists but that “is violated in a flagrant, repeated, rebellious and willful manner”.
Finally, the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, highlighted the approval of an institutional declaration to strengthen the commitment to combat trafficking in women, girls and people in general. This declaration will be accompanied by an improvement in the methodology for assessing the situation.
