No Credit At All

Editorials
No Credit At All
By h.b. - Mar 24, 2007 - 11:21 AM

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The main opposition party calls for a boycott of a leading media group in Spain, because of personal comments made by the GRUPO PRISA Chairman

EDITORIAL COMMENT -

One wonders if the Partido Popular has been waiting for the excuse to attack the GRUPO PRISA media group for some time.

It’s not the first time that such an attack has happened – In 1996 the José María Aznar government tried to stop the development of Canal Satellite, the new pay per view satellite television service being established by Prisa. Aznar used his personal friendship with the Chairman of Telefónica at the time, Juan Villalonga, together with the support of the Judge Javier Gómez de Liaño, as it happens with little success.

There are some who say that it is still Aznar who is pulling the strings of the Partido Popular, and it would certainly be interesting to know if he was consulted before the party’s current leader, personally chosen by Aznar remember, Mariano Rajoy, made his statement about boycotting Grupo Prisa on Friday.

That statement was nothing short of a blackmail attempt by the leader of the main opposition party in Spain against one of the largest media groups in Spain and Latin America. The direct call for a boycott of Prisa to the group’s ‘shareholders, advertisers and clients’ shows the total lack of respect that the PP has for the freedom of business or, indeed the freedom of expression.

It shows a deep lack of respect inside the PP for those whose ideas are not their own. Indeed, it shows a deep lack of respect for democracy.

We should not be too surprised at this considering recent events. The rank and file of the very party is, at all times, expected to tow the party line. Self criticism is simply not tolerated. However the Falange flags and other symbols from the Franco era, as seen on the recent demonstrations supported by the PP, remain.

Jesús de Polanco was using his freedom of expression when he made his comments on Thursday to the Prisa shareholders. Indeed at the time he even labelled the very same comments as being his personal opinion. He said he was old enough now, and had always been an impertinent man, to say things as they are, face on.

It is a fundamental principle of democracy that he can do so, and he should not see the business he has built up threatened because of more political point scoring by the Partido Popular.

This attack by Mariano Rajoy and his party does him no credit at all.

(Typically Spanish is not part of the GRUPO PRISA)

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