The dismissal of José Manuel Tornero as head of RTVE, after losing the Government’s trust in just a year and a half, starts a very phase. uncertainty on public television. Workers fear that at a time when they have many “nerves” due to the closeness of regional and municipal elections and the next general election with the PSOE and United We Can, their resignations are being forced to allow Moncloa to have more control over content. lagged behind in the polls.
According to different sources, who see Tornero’s departure as a “manoeuvre” to facilitate the “intervention” of the Government, this is the atmosphere at home. The ex-president has fallen, and he sees it that way because of pressure from Podemos, which has spread the idea that RTVE is not responding to offers from a “left” Executive. This and a chaotic administration permeated the PSOE, where Tornero was no longer useful. So the fear now is that with the headless company—the new president, journalist Elena Sánchez being a temporary figure and lacking executive functions—the Government tends to monitor the information.
TVE’s news council said in a statement following Tornero’s resignation, “great risk of exposure to strong politicization at the gates of a year with several election appointments” and “if current or imminent movements in the RTVE have the aim of subordinating this public service to partisan interests, workers will not let“. As this newspaper learned, the professionals of the public chain call mobilizations. This is, in part, something that is considered to reinforce the caveat that they’ve already included in the description.
While TVE sources point out that there have already been “unpleasant” episodes on Tornero’s stage, they also assure that they are working together “today”. “all freedom in the news”, strictly following the informative criteria. “As of today,” the sources consulted repeat, “no strange approach has been detected.” And if that happens, the professionals are ready to fight like they did in 2018, wearing black every Friday to protest the manipulation at the PP stage and the blockade on the renewal of the RTVE leadership.
Professionals, fascinated
Different sources also confirm that even though the Government has like-minded executives, it would be very difficult to deviate from the information criteria because its “essential editors and chiefs” conspired to avoid it. “Too many people under the organizational chart”. While slogans can be thrown from the company’s leadership, they explain, there is a very strong professional body that can avoid it so that it doesn’t reach journalists covering national information. And neither, they add, is “the direction of television news will be swallowed up.” “If things go wrong, we’ll report it.”
The truth is that Moncloa’s relationship with TVE has long been strained, and the employee’s feeling was uneasiness and restlessness. The relationship between the professionals and Tornero was not good, and he systematically ignored requests made to him by the newsroom. In the statement itself, they denounced him for decisions such as the public-channel veto of journalists to travel to Tindouf refugee camps in Western Sahara, following the crisis Morocco and Spain faced due to the acceptance of the Polisario leader. Front, Brahim Gali. Now, after months of waiting for his project to materialise—Tornero was appointed by Congress with PP’s support—his departure has reactivated the newsroom.
Source: Informacion
