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Alert

Opposition party refuses to give interviews to PRISA group media outlets after criticism

(WPFC/IFEX) - The following is a 30 March 2007 WPFC letter to the president of opposition party Partido Popular:

Mr. Mariano Rajoy Brey
President
Popular Party of Spain
c/ Génova, 13, 1a Planta
28004 Madrid, Spain

Dear Mr. Rajoy:

On behalf of the World Press Freedom Committee ( http://www.wpfc.org ) - an organization representing 45 press freedom groups in six continents - I wish to express my profound concern about your decision to exclude the group of media outlets known as PRISA by promising "to stop attending any invitations to interviews, talk shows and programs" originated by members of such an organization.

In your March 24 statement, you addressed your words "especially to the shareholders, advertisers and clients of that communications group" because of the tough words by PRISA's president Jesús de Polanco against your party, which currently is in the opposition.

Our Committee considers your statement as an unfortunate attack on freedom of the press and of expression and, especially, on the right of citizens to be duly informed about issues of crucial relevance for the health and vigor of Spanish democracy. This fundamental concept of freedom of the press and of expression is consecrated in two of the world's most important human rights documents.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

And Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights declares:

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

Both articles leave no doubt about the imperative need for the members of a society to enjoy, without any kind of obstacle, their right to be duly informed. Your excluding PRISA's numerous media outlets is a clear attack on these two fundamental postulates.

Even though it is true that Mr. Polanco's statements can be interpreted as offensive, you, as a public official and head of one of your country's most influential political parties, ought to accept, more willingly than any other regular citizen, the slings and arrows of the criticism of the rest of society.

After your statement, you were kind enough to speak with PRISA reporters during an impromptu press conference in Germany. We saw that action as an encouraging sign that you would soon see the error of your ways. Members of your party, however, continue sending worrisome signals that a retraction will not take place.

On Tuesday, it was reported that members of the Popular Party in positions of public power or actively seeking them have withdrawn advertisements from media outlets belonging to PRISA. Despite the fact that some of them have cited logistic or strategic, and not political, reasons for their decision, we find it difficult to believe that the motives of these actions are legitimate.

Mr. Rajoy, societies that have traditionally adopted the basic postulates of freedom of the press and of expression tacitly accept that the appropriate remedy to "bad" speech is more, and not less, speech. Political debate, in many instances exacerbated and offensive, must not be inhibited but encouraged, and therefore, be made more productive.

For these reasons, we urge you to retract your statement and declare a new, open debate through all media outlets in Spain.

Respectfully,

E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee