The president of the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA), Rosa Romà , and the director of TV3, Sigfrid Gras, have agreed this Friday that the gag in which the Virgen del RocÃo was parodied in the program Està passant is not will withdraw because it is “framed” in the right to freedom of expression. This is how they responded, during the control commission of the CCMA in Parliament, to the claim of the PSC, VOX and Ciutadans groups to withdraw this gag considering it offensive to believers and also to Catalan society of Andalusian origin.
Rosa Romà has defended her position appealing to the resolution of the Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC) in which it is stated that “satirical expression is a manifestation of the free opinion of ideas, beliefs and value judgments, which is used as a instrument of denunciation and social criticism”, although said satirical expressions may “be unfortunate and even hurtful, especially for people who profess the Catholic faith”. In her opinion, “this gag has to be seen in the context of a comedy show. Satire is not always liked by everyone, but this is freedom of expression and, therefore, we respect the content of the programâ€.
The director of TV3, SÃgfrid Gras, has expressed himself along the same lines, lamenting “a political use” of the gag a few weeks before regional elections in Andalusia. He has defended that on TV3 humor is made about Catalans and about other religious beliefs different from Catholicism (he appealed to a gag from the Polònia program broadcast after the gag of Està passant in that sense) and has reaffirmed that humor “is part of the DNA from our television.
“Humor is a symptom of democratic quality, which brings more to all of us and is one of the symbols of TV3”, he continued, adding later that “we will persist with our possible risks, but the obligation of Catalan public television is humor, no matter how much criticism we haveâ€. Regarding the lack of respect for all Andalusians, Gras has made it known that he participates in the Catalan April Fair, a phenomenon that TV3 “reflects” in its programming and has admitted that he would have preferred Tuesday, April 4 in the program Está passant, in the draw that was made about which character they had to interview, Judas would have come out, “to avoid these problems.”
However, no rectification option is considered. “The Episcopal Conference has not said anything and the deputy of Podemos who made the first tweet, then spent four days apologizing, because she did not want to contribute to making the controversy bigger, she just wanted to say that she had not liked the gag”, has pointed out
“We are doomed to controversies because we are a transcendent television but we do not expressly seek them,” continued Gras, who has denied that there have been sponsors who have left the program. “We want to be the television of all Catalans, regardless of the ideology they have”, he stressed to insist later that if they had to withdraw all the gags that have offended someone “we would have to withdraw everything because someone always gets angry”.
