Armando G. Tejeda
Correspondent
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, September 18, 2024, p. 26
Madrid. The Spanish government, headed by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, yesterday presented a plan for the democratic regeneration which seeks to regulate the media, fight hoaxes and fake news and modify the Penal Code to reform a series of crimes in force since the Franco era, such as offending religious feelings and the crown.
The project must be validated in the Congress of Deputies, where the government coalition – the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and Sumar – do not have the necessary support. The opposition, led by the right-wing Popular Party, called the measure a degeneration plan.
In April, when the media published news about Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, who was accused of influence peddling, among other things, the president announced that he would take a few days off. reflection to decide whether it was worth continuing to lead his charge in the face of the mud machine and the poisoning campaigns against him and his relatives.
He finally decided to continue and the day he announced his decision he also warned that he would present a plan of democratic regeneration for preserve it of the attacks that They try to destroy it.
Five months later, he presented the plan, which for the moment contains general ideas and is awaiting the definition of specific measures in the parliamentary negotiations to obtain a majority, especially because the different parliamentary groups have diverse demands and opinions, in some cases antagonistic.
One of the main objectives is to demand more transparency to the media, which means they must provide detailed information on the identity of the owners of the publishing companies and the origins of their funding sources, especially if they receive public money, whether from the central government, the autonomous communities, the town councils or any other type of public body.
The body responsible for supervising them will be the National Commission on Markets and Competition.
In parallel, the Spanish government intends to reform the Law on Institutional Advertising to further limit the way in which public resources are allocated by public institutions, in an effort to give it more transparency, proportionality and non-discrimination in its allocation.
The opposition, led by the Popular Party, supported by the far-right Vox, attacked the initiative, calling it degeneration plan and warned that it is now the government’s power to decide who is and who is not a journalist or news outlet.