The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has approved the measures proposed by Spanish Radio and Television (RTVE) to compensate the parties that denounced the RTVE interview with the President of the Government during the electoral campaign. And these will consist of similar spaces broadcast on the 24-hour channel.
This was announced by the JEC after its last meeting this Thursday and after listening to the entity’s arguments to execute the resolution issued last Tuesday once the complaint filed by PP, ERC, COMMONS and Cs were known.
RTVE has alluded to the impossibility of, in the remaining days of the electoral campaign, compensating the aggrieved with interviews on La 1. And arguing insurmountable logistical and technical difficulties, it has proposed the inclusion of the new spaces in the program La Noche en 24 Hours as it is “an equivalent national format, which allows it to be carried out with the maximum possible national dissemination.”
In this way, the interviews with the aggrieved parties will be carried out at a time similar to that of the interview, starting at 10 p.m. – within prime time television -, and with a duration proportional to the representation obtained by each political party in the last equivalent elections.
In the agreement reached this Thursday, the JEC admits that the solution offered by RTVE is not “fully satisfactory,” but dismisses the groups’ appeals, understanding that the compensation is “reasonable and sufficient.”
RTVE justified the offer to interview the candidates on Channel 24 Hours in the logistical difficulty of carrying out several 40-minute live interviews in three days on the La 1 news program because they do not fit into the format, since Sánchez’s was a exception, and would force the leaders to travel to Madrid in the final stretch of the campaign.
In addition, RTVE explained that for this Thursday, May 9, it had already acquired the commitment to broadcast live “on its first channel and in its prime time programming” the second semi-final of the Eurovision 2024 festival, which would collide with the broadcast of the interviews.
In this regard, the JEC points out that “it is not unaware that the audience of Canal 24 Horas is much lower than that of La 1” but adds that relevant circumstances must be taken into account, such as that there are only three days available, transfers and “the relevant impact ” in the programming due to the Eurovision coincidence.
A contentious-administrative appeal may be filed against the JEC agreement before the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court for a period of two months from its notification.
The JEC has also ruled on the appeal filed by the PSOE for the recent publication by Telemadrid on the social network to the website of the public television channel.
The Electoral Board understands that the use of the aforementioned expression is “contrary to the principle of informative neutrality” required of publicly owned media during the electoral period and, revoking the agreement of the Provincial Electoral Board of Madrid, orders said Board to proceed to “initiate sanctioning proceedings” against the people at Radio Televisión Madrid who are responsible for its publication.
Madrid Public Radio and Television must also withdraw the aforementioned expressions and ensure that it does not use terms or expressions of the same nature in the future.
