followthemedia.com - a knowledge base for media professionals
The Public Service

Politicians Plan For Public Broadcasting: Ready, Fire, Aim

Austerity economics and the political games related are tied to the health and well-being of public broadcasting. Politicians prefer their media compliant and will challenge all who complain. Still, public broadcasters know their strength, which confounds those forming the circular firing squad.

duelPoliticians in Spain continue to take shots at each other over operations and financing of public broadcaster RTVE. One side accused the other of having no plan for RTVE other than “starvation” and threatened an appeal to the European Parliament. Go ahead, said a spokesperson for the other side, take it to the United Nations if you want. Spain has other problems none of which can be solved by or on the media.

Spain’s political parties set up a special parliamentary committee to oversee RTVE in early 2012, financing being one of several intertwined issues. At the committee’s first meeting center-right People’s Party (Partido Popular – PP) members railed at “bias” in news coverage, “serving the opposition” and “distorting” reality following the November 2011 elections that resulted in PP leader Mariano Rajoy replacing Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as prime minister.  PP politicians promptly cut €200 million from the RTVE budget.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in June that a French tax on telecoms to support public broadcasting “does not break the telecommunications rules in the European Union.” And so the ECJ formally withdrew action against Spain and Hungary for similar tax legislation. The Zapatero government adopted the tax on telecoms and commercial broadcasters to replace advertising on RTVE television channels.

“Neither the government nor the PP have a plan for public broadcasting or its employees,” said PSOE Senator and oversight committee member Juan Luis Gordo at a press conference, quoted by El Pais (September 19). “It does have a plan but it’s personal, a plan defending the interests of the PP using public sources. The only plan they have is starvation: TVE dies and dies alone.”

“When the PP came to government, TVE (RTVE television channels) was leading with a 14.5% share,” he continued. “In August it reached an historic minimum with an audience share of 10.2%. The falling audience share was “no coincidence.”

Sr. Gordo wasn’t finished. “Today the (RTVE) board of directors is merely a symbolic body…which does nothing, does not control anything and puts no ideas on the table.” The PSOE would “raise complaints” with the European Parliament.

Politics, of course, goes where it goes. People’s Party (PP) member of the RTVE oversight committee Ramón Moreno called the comments of Sr. Gordo “nonsense” and “grotesque,” in a statement quoted by El Mundo (September 20). “It’s an agonizing way to get attention because the PSOE is unable…to offer any initiative with positive impact on a public more concerned with the current economic crisis that his party left in our country.”

They “have nothing left but to ask for a UN resolution,” Sr. Moreno concluded.

Politicians have long battled with or about public broadcasting, and easy target because, unless you work there, nobody knows where it comes from. The Greek government shut down its public broadcaster ERT this past summer ostensibly to satisfy demands for cuts to public sector employment. Local media watchers suggest a more sinister plot to wrestle away sports rights for well-connected private broadcasters. Public protests and an international lobbying campaign following the closure nearly brought down the Greek government, which has only offered a meek substitute to ERT.

Ireland’s public broadcaster RTE is “leaner” after an austerity program made more austere by dismal economics. “We have been through five turbulent years,” said director general Noel Curran on the release of a new five-year plan, quoted by the Irish Independent (September 17). “Now we need to look forward.”  Without a revenue boost from the Irish government, he said, news and current affairs programming could be cut. Commercial broadcasters in Ireland are lobbying to wean RTE from advertising revenue. Ireland’s Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte favors strengthening license fee collections.

British politicians of all stripe are continuing their war against all media. Newspaper publishers are due to be handed a distasteful self-regulation scheme with parliamentary teeth popular in the wake of phone hacking and other rude awakenings. Public broadcaster BBC has become a non-partisan political target, accused of all sorts of misdeeds including paying executives too much.


See also in ftm Knowledge

Public Broadcasting - Arguments, Battles and Changes

Public broadcasters have - mostly - thrown off the musty stain of State broadcasting. And audiences for public channels are growing. But arguments and battles with politicians, publishers and commercial broadcasters threatens more changes. The ftm Knowledge file examines all sides. 168 pages PDF (March 2014)

Order here

Media in Spain and Portugal

The Iberian Peninsula is home to media with vast international reach. Yet, at home the economic crisis has taken its toll. The ftm Knowledge file profiles Spanish and Portuguese public and private media as it struggles to cope. Includes Resources 61 pages PDF (March 2012)

Order here


ftm resources

related ftm articles

Bringing Culture And Media To The Table
So complex are economics that multi-lateral trade agreements are best negotiated in good times. Big agreements are hard to put together anytime as countries fight for want they want with all the leverage they can muster. Every export is favored and every import is resisted. But trade is important for stagnant economies and the media sector has come into play once again.

Politicians Get The TV They Want
In the best of times, public broadcasters hold broad support from listeners and viewers as well as politicians. For a generation the former State agencies enjoyed stable, often substantial funding and a measure of independence. Dismal economics feeding political turmoil is turning back the clock.

Public Broadcasting Chiefs Roll With The Punches…Sometimes Out The Door
Corporation boards, however they are constituted, always have a succession plan. Nobody wants confusion about when the CEO leaves the stage, so to speak. Public broadcasters are generally quite orderly about tenures and terms, except when they’re not.


advertisement

ftm Knowledge

Media in Spain - Diverse and Challenged – new

Media in Spain is steeped in tradition. yet challenged by diversity. Publishers hold great influence, broadcasters competing. New media has been slow to rise and business models for all are under stress. Rich in language and culture, Spain's media is reaching into the future and finding more than expected. 123 pages, PDF. January 2018

Order here

The Campaign Is On - Elections and Media

Elections campaigns are big media events. Candidates and issues are presented, analyzed and criticized in broadcast and print. Media is now more of a participant in elections than ever. This ftm Knowledge file reports on news coverage, advertising, endorsements and their effect on democracy at work. 84 pages. PDF (September 2017)

Order here

Fake News, Hate Speech and Propaganda

The institutional threat of fake news, hate speech and propaganda is testing the mettle of those who toil in news media. Those three related evils are not new, by any means, but taken together have put the truth and those reporting it on the back foot. Words matter. This ftm Knowledge file explores that light. 48 pages, PDF (March 2017)

Order here

More ftm Knowledge files here

Become an ftm Individual or Corporate Member to order Knowledge Files at no charge. JOIN HERE!

copyright ©2004-2014 ftm partners, unless otherwise noted Contact UsSponsor ftm