Sánchez announces that the measures for democratic regeneration will limit institutional advertising in the media

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Monday that he will appear before Congress on July 17 to present the Executive’s proposal for democratic regeneration and quality, which will include proposals such as institutional advertising in the media and the public funding they receive.

“We are going to modify the right to honor, to rectification, and one of the proposals is the modification of the law on institutional advertising,” explained Sánchez, in an interview for Cadena Ser. As indicated by the president, this rule does not It incorporates phenomena such as the digitization of information and digital media, which is why it has been considered “important” to follow the example of Europe and incorporate “transparency in the financing with public resources” of digital pseudomedia and tabloids. “What is not acceptable is that public resources are financing disinformation and hoaxes, as in some right-wing and far-right governments,” he criticized.

Another point that the coalition government intends to address is the maximum amount of money from public funding allocated to media and websites. “There are media that only have public resources, they have no readers,” the socialist criticised. “That puts their independence at risk.”

After presenting the proposal, Sánchez said, a round of consultations will be opened with “all the parliamentary forces that want to participate” in the action plan and when the summer is over, the relevant legislative measures will be put in place. Some of them are already being worked on with Sumar, although the ideas of the groups will be heard from 17 July. “It will strengthen our democracy,” said the president.

Regarding the hoaxes and misinformation of these pseudo-media, Sánchez regretted that they are causing “damage to coexistence and the correct functioning of democratic societies” and that they open “the doors” to phenomena such as the new far-right groups.

Since last May, the Government’s parliamentary partners have been pressuring Pedro Sánchez to close these democratic regeneration measures after he announced them after his five-day pause. Both Sumar, ERC, Junts and EH Bildu have been waiting for this time for the plan to begin to take shape and officially take off.