Joseph Oughourlian, president of Grupo Prisa – a publicly traded company and owner of the newspaper El País and SER, the leading radio network in Spain – has publicly denounced the attempt by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to oust him from the presidency of the Group and seize the company, as he has already done with Indra and Telefónica.
In an editorial unimaginable just a few weeks ago, Oughourlian explains in El País that ‘It would be unacceptable that, while we are remembering that it has been 50 years since the dictator Francisco Franco died, someone would fall into the temptation of trying to take over an independent media outlet from power, either directly or by using some state company as an instrument.’
The public denunciation comes after the French press revealed that Minister Oscar López and the new president of Telefónica, Marc Murtra, had met in Paris with the CEO of Vivendi, who owns 12% of Prisa, to urge him to stop supporting Oughourlian.
The battle has erupted publicly due to the Government’s desire to award Grupo Prisa a new television license – already known as ‘TelePedro’ – which the president of Prisa does not want, having been scarred by the enormous losses that its entry into the television world generated for the group in the past.
To halt the operation, Oughourlian recently dismissed two senior officials at Prisa who, supported by the Government, intended to launch this new TV channel. The dismissals triggered hostilities, which come at a time when, paradoxically, the Government is implementing a law to require media outlets to publicly disclose their owners, the official advertising they receive, etc.
What is surprising is that given the accumulation of corruption, deceit, lies, and assaults… from the government led by Sánchez is already of such magnitude that a new outrage like the one known these days – which in any civilized country would cost the Prime Minister his job – has not warranted more than a few lines in Spanish media, which are today focused on explaining the agreement reached between Sánchez and Puigdemont to distribute over 4,000 underage migrants crowded in the Canary Islands across Spain: Between 20 and 30 of those minors will go to Catalonia, while Madrid will host more than 700… By Royal Decree. Incredible but true.
