If the general public who live in a territory pay for a public television channel via their taxes, we should assume that it will be objective, plural and neutral. Unfortunately in Catalonia this television, which should be for all Catalonians, does not meet the most minimum requirements required. and modesty has not prevented them using it as yet another mouthpiece for the "Proces", as usual.
Led by a pro-independence director, who was rejected by Parlament itself, and who has ignored this democratic mandate, along with the tricks of the acting president of the Corporation who are card-carrying Convergence party members, TV3 has become the Big Brother to the "Procés". There are many examples that we could put on the table, and that in each control committee meeting, we raised our voices to denounce this lack of objectivity.
From what they call the judgment of the century, that of 9th November (remember that we are at the beginning of the century and also forget, for example, about the trial for the plunder in the Palau Case), about which 41 pieces of news were made in 5 days, while curiously only 1:30 minutes of the 3% case (jobs is return for political party contributions) was discussed, up to special programmes of the illegal 1st October Referendum, in "prime time" with "special" debate on the same thing the week after.
The first law presented by Ciutadans in the last legislature was precisely to increase the parliamentary majority required to choose the governing body of the Catalonian audiovisual media corporation, as well as to increase the years of experience required within the sector.
Of course, this in itself would not solve all our current public television issues, but it would help to establish the bases so that diversity and professionalism would get reflected much better than it is now. This demand is not exclusive to Ciutadans as a political party, but rather our own employees' demand for this greater diversity and professionalism within the media.
The consequences of this independence drift are clear. The audiences of the chain have diminished radically and half of all Catalonians do not watch it despite being paying for it out of their own pockets.
A GESOP survey says that two out of three Catalonians believe that their public television has a pro-independence bent.
Public representatives have the obligation to redirect the situation, and in the first place, make Catalonian public television an example to follow for the rest of regional television. We need to manage resources efficiently so that it can be the engine of the Catalonian audiovisual industry and reactivate the sector, giving it an impulse that is undoubtedly necessary.
And secondly, we have to guarantee that our television, the television of all Catalonians, unequivocally provides a public, and therefore objective service, that for which it was created. However, this will not be achieved until the independence leaders understand that public media are not owned by an ideology but rather by the entire of Catalonian plural and diverse society.
