Watchdog and opposition accuse TVE of political bias

SPAIN’S ruling PP conservative government has rejected allegations of political interference in state television ahead of regional and parliamentary elections this year.

Staff at TVE and opposition parties accuse the station’s news programmes of favouring Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government and glossing over news that could damage the ruling Popular Party.

They say the problem began in April 2012, just after the PP took office, and abolished a requirement that the channel’s president be approved by a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Socialist lawmaker German Rodriguez told parliament: “Since then cases of manipulation and censorship and complaints by news professionals have been constant, and it has gotten worse as the elections approach. Public television is there to serve the people not to serve the electoral interests of the Popular Party.”

The station’s Information Council, an internal ethics watchdog elected by TVE’s editorial staff, delivered a report to the European Parliament earlier this month in which it accused the channel’s news programmes of “pro-government manipulation.”