The “Action Plan for Democracy” approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers proposes to create a register of media to know their owners and the advertising they receive, aims to increase institutional transparency and commits to pursuing disinformation through legal reforms.
The project, which includes 31 measures and whose execution is planned during the three remaining years of the legislature, includes measures promised for years to parliamentary partnerssuch as the reform of the offences of insulting state institutions or offending religious feelings, or the updating of the law on state secrets.
The objective of Pedro Sánchez’s executive is to expand and improve the quality of government information; strengthen the transparency, plurality and responsibility of the “information ecosystem”; and strengthen the transparency of the legislative branch and the electoral system, as explained in the press conference after the Council of Ministers by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños.
Among the innovative proposals, various legal reforms are proposed to establish the obligation of organize the annual debate on the state of the nationalso organize election debates or publish all microdata from election surveys.
Transparency in the media
In the field of media, the Government wishes to publish each year the advertising investment by all public administrations and reform the law on institutional advertising to introduce “criteria of transparency, proportionality and non-discrimination in its allocation”ensure impartial audience measurement systems and support media in co-official languages.
It commits to limiting the funding that public administrations can devote to the media, “so that there are no media promoted or dependent on public administrations”, and will also revise the regulatory framework to “guarantee pluralism by avoiding the concentration of media.” communication.
Among the reforms planned in this area, he also proposes to reform the law on the professional secrecy of journalists as well as the article of the so-called gag law which penalizes the use of images of state security forces and organizations.
Against disinformation
The plan includes the approval of a national strategy to combat disinformation campaigns and the reform of the Law on the Right to Honor and Privacy and the Law on the Right to Rectification, to improve the system that allows for the rectification of “false or openly biased” information, with compensation… and appropriate deadlines.
This section includes the reform of crimes in the Penal Code that may affect freedom of expression, particularly those that refer to state institutions, religious feelings or public ridicule.
In parallel with the 100 million euro programme to promote the digitalisation of media, the National Commission for Markets and Competition will be given powers in the area of digital services and media.
