The plan presented by Bolaños and Urtasun saves the will to reverse the reductions of freedoms introduced by Rajoy in the Gag law. An extreme on which only Sumar has insisted and in which there is no guarantee that the reversal will be complete.
The hostility of the press towards this government is unprecedented in world history.
You have surely heard of the theory of eternal return. Today, it is worth it, without the need to be philosophical. Let us talk about the Democratic Action Plan because, even if it is not carried out, it denotes an attitude that worries me, like most journalists, and that is familiar to me: that of the power that tries to control the press. The excuses may vary, they have varied in the history of the world, but the origin, the methods and the consequences are always similar.
On Tuesday I was at the presentation of a book on “The Golden Age of Journalism”, a compilation of articles by a professor of journalism, Juan Antonio Giner, to whom the subscriber and hundreds or thousands of Spanish journalists owe part of their professional knowledge. Giner did not want to speak as an author, which is normal at these events, but rather to sit down journalists, editors and media directors to answer the question of whether we are now living in a golden age of journalism. He, with his seven long decades of life behind him, believes that yes, it is. Rosalía Lloret, the general director of this media that you are currently reading, and some other colleagues agreed with him and they reasoned very well. It was Martínez Soler, an emblematic progressive journalist forged in the Transition, who determined that the golden age was precisely the one that followed the death of Franco, in which “power was disoriented and in a state of low alert”, until it was reactivated with the arrival of Felipe González. And even he, who worked in media close to Felipism, had to face it.
For anyone who has been in this profession for a few years, for any reader with a memory, what is happening is not new. The eternal return. The first love affair of the socialists with the press was broken precisely by the corruption case that affected the brother of the vice-president of the government, the Juan Guerra case. Both González and Guerra adopted an attitude of Numantine resistance – they initially rejected the information, threatened legal action, disavowed the sources and journalists, and limited themselves to the fact that the case “is dead” and “it must decline by nature” – that this resulted in the resignation of Alfonso Guerra and destroyed a good part of the ethical prestige of socialism itself, of those “one hundred years of honesty.”
In the midst of the Guerra affair, when the belligerence was greater, the president declared, supported by the Minister of the Presidency, Virgilio Zapatero, that it was convenient to know “who was behind the media.” Then as now, the data was in the commercial register. González did not spare his criticism of “the down jackets of democracy.” Even IU compared Felipe to Franco for this bill: “it is a tantrum due to the hypothetical bad treatment that the socialists receive from the press; If the socialist proposal violates the right to freedom of expression, we will show opposition and rejection.” The government spokesman and the Minister of the Presidency insisted day after day in their interventions on the need to increase transparency in the ownership and financing of the media. One media outlet demonstrated to them, by publishing complete data from all the media and groups, that there was no difficulty in doing so. The same thing is happening now.
A few days later, an article by JF Beaumont in El País stated that the government would “take the initiative proposed by Felipe González calmly” because “it wants to mature the subject well and the type of legislative initiative has not yet been defined.” that would be presented. The government of the great parliamentary majority began to go back on the announcement that, during this same legislative session, it would present to Parliament the measures that would allow “to know who is behind the private news media.” During this scandal, “new provisions for crimes of opinion” were also announced, with fines in the framework of “rapid and effective trials” for journalists. At the same time, in response to the José María García case, the government proposed the reform of the Organic Law on the Civil Protection of Honor, Privacy and Image and the Penal Code. Everything was left in borage water. In a democracy, the best press law is the one that no longer exists in a clear or sneaky way, González told national journalism.
Why am I telling you all this? I have to become a chive grandmother or maybe something has come to mind. I leave it to you. The fact that the same thing is going to happen, that everything will be ruined for lack of parliamentary support, does not lessen the temptation that, as I have shown, usually shakes the tenants of Moncloa. Guerra was acquitted by the office and influences and found guilty of tax fraud, in case you do not remember, but the political responsibility existed and was paid.
The plan presented by Bolaños and Urtasun saves the will to reverse the reductions in freedoms introduced by Rajoy in the Gag law. An extreme that only Sumar has insisted on and in which there is no guarantee that the reversal will be complete. The other interesting point concerns the declassification of official secrets, the candy that points to the PNV, about which the latter party is skeptical because it has already found itself blocked several times with the same thing. “The Spanish government must not force it to say that it does not have an absolute majority,” said Puigdemont, who did not vote in Brussels or the famous regulation from which the reforms want to arise. It does not seem possible that Junts will support these measures.
That the lack of support makes them a dead letter does not mean that they point out dangerous paths that, as you have seen, are not new. There is no need to resort to more instruments or new laws. In any case, additional investments in justice would be necessary so that the application deadlines do not drag on. I have not heard anything about that. The same goes for hoaxes, bots and false flag campaigns on the networks, which are the most important. All this sounds a lot like Felipism, I hope at least that González does not come to scold Sánchez precisely for that. Or yes, because he rectified it in time.
And if you have doubts, think about what would happen with these new and revolutionary ideas of the Sánchez government in the hands of Vox. They will see how their enthusiasm will pass if they had it.
