Galicia TV rewards the lawyer who defends her cases of harassment and retaliation against critical journalists with a high position

The Radio and Television Corporation of Galicia (CRTVG) has hired as a senior member of its management team Beatriz Isabel Couceiro Gonzálezexternal lawyer whose firm has defended the public entity in several cases of dismissal, workplace harassment and retaliation against journalists critical of the manipulation of public media during the mandates of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Alfonso Rueda in the Xunta.

The lawyer joined the company management structure last September as head of the administration and billing service, with an annual salary of 57,145.32 euros. Her position does not have any responsibility in the human resources department, but the management has just commissioned her to investigate the disciplinary files opened against two other workers for supporting the intermittent indefinite strike that the staff has been maintaining for weeks.

The board of directors of the CRTVG processed the appointment of Couceiro in the plenary session on July 23, but the company’s management assures that the employment relationship The house was not started until last September. It also adds that “she is registered before the Illustrious Colexio da Avogacía of Santiago de Compostela as a non-practicing lawyer on September 15, 2024.” “Therefore, it is not possible that he was involved in any case with a later date,” says the CRTVG.

The truth is that, according to the documentation to which this newspaper has had access that accompanies this text, Couceiro did remain in person at least until last November 11 as external legal representative of the company, in a case opened in the Social Court number 4 of Santiago for another disciplinary file against a journalist who resorted to the courts, considering it unfair.

Workplace harassment

This is the same worker who filed a complaint against nine directors of the CRTVG, including its director, Alfonso Sánchez Izquierdo, whom another Criminal Judge has prosecuted for a crime of workplace harassment and violation of their fundamental rights, and who is pending the opening of oral proceedings.

Precisely, the lawyer who has taken charge after Couceiro’s resignation of the disciplinary file case, which the journalist has appealed, is José Martín Fuentes Neavethe same one who defends eight of the managers accused of the harassment to which they subjected her, and who accepted the new case on December 2.

The CRTVG has a legal advisory department own in which several lawyers work, but usually hire and pay external lawyers to address the enormous volume of litigation it faces.

In labor matters alone, during the mandates of Sánchez Izquierdo there have been hundreds of rulings against for violation of fundamental and labor rights, with compensation and allocation of procedural costs that are paid with public moneyas well as rulings by electoral boards against manipulation and lack of information neutrality.

Sánchez Izquierdo, who charges an annual salary of 102,168.66 euros –that is, 11,719 euros more than the President of the Government and 16,844 euros more than that of the Xunta–, maintains that these cases come from previous stages and that the complaints represent less than 0.5% of the corporation’s judicial procedures. He also denies the evidence of the electoral board’s warnings.

Violation of freedom of expression

The new head of administration and billing also led the defense of the CRTVG in the trial that condemned the company for violating the rights to free expression and effective judicial protection of another Galician Radio professional. According to the judges, the journalist was illegally sanctioned for supporting the black veins of the Defende a Galega platform, which for almost six years has organized regular weekly protests – this Friday marks 343 consecutive days – against the partisan use of public media and the discrimination of its staff for ideological reasons.

“The appointment is a payment of favors and has not respected the essential criteria for access to employment in a public company”

In addition, Couceiro has defended the CRTVG in at least four other lawsuits against its workers: two for disciplinary proceedingsone of which was annulled by justice; another for a dismissal, which the Superior Court of Xustiza of Galicia (TSXG) considered inadmissible, and another for a collective dispute raised by the Unitary Confederation of Workers (CUT), in which the same court ruled in favor of the union representation.

The workers believe that Couceiro’s appointment is illegal and discretionary because “it has not respected the essential criteria for access to employment in a public company”, they describe it as “payment of favors” and recall that the management did not inform, as required, the works council. “That is reason for a complaint to the Labor Inspectionand we will act accordingly,” said Santiago Alvite, representative of the Galician Intesindical Confederation (CIG).

Public have tried without success to contact Beatriz Isabel Couceiro via phone and email. The CRTVG has reported that the total of her fees working as a lawyer or as an external support service for the Corporation’s legal services between 2019 and 2025 amounted to 5,346.09 euros.

Regarding the fact that she has been appointed instructor of a disciplinary file, despite the fact that her responsibility as head of administration and billing is unrelated to the legal advisory and human resources departments, the management of Sánchez Izquierdo assures that it is “an absolutely normal procedure and already used before.