On Tuesday, October 29, the date of the DANA outbreak that has devastated the Valencian regions, the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, was eating with a journalist to whom he offered to direct the Valencian public radio and television station. The Presidency of the Generalitat has changed its version several times about what the president did, where and with whom. First he said it was a private meeting, then a business meeting. He left the Palau de la Generalitat around 2:30 p.m. and joined the command center in l’Eliana after 7:30 p.m., with nothing on his official public agenda. His team said he was constantly working and informed. The communicator with whom Mazón ate, Maribel Vilaplana, declined the president’s offer. He began his career on Spanish Television and was one of the faces of Channel 9 in charge of news. With recognized experience in the sector, he did not accept Mazón’s offer. Since the meeting became known, the journalist’s social networks have been filled with insults towards her.
While the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) was convened, the Valencian president was maneuvering to choose the general direction of the public media, over which he has greater control thanks to a law approved with Vox. Before breaking up with the Consell, the PP and the extreme right approved in the Corts Valencianes a rule that completely reforms the structure of public radio and television, ensuring political control of the board of directors and, therefore, of the entire entity. The attempt to politically control public television occurred in the first months of government, but had to wait for the processing of the specific law.
The PP, with the support of Vox, changed the entire public television and radio system. Now the Corts Valencianes elect seven councilors and the remaining eighth is proposed by the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, also with a conservative majority. They are elected by absolute majority, when before it was three-fifths. This council has to choose the president from among its members, unlike the already repealed rule, which established that he be chosen by the regional Parliament.
At the time of DANA, the transition from the current model to that of the new law was developing in the Cortes. As elDiario.es published, the PP’s intention was to have everything ready before the end of the year. The idea was that the eight appointments of the Board of Directors would be addressed in October and get the apparatus up and running, but the negotiation of other bodies has delayed the process.
Mazón was surveying journalists for a position that, according to the law, corresponds to the Board of Directors. Article 10 of the law says: “The general director is the executive body of the Corporació Audiovisual de la Comunitat Valenciana SA (CACVSA) and will be appointed by the Consell de la Generalitat Valenciana, at the proposal of the Board of Directors.” The Council proposes, the Executive appoints. According to the events of last Tuesday, the Valencian president was getting ahead of what was established in the norm.
The general management has the executive function of the company, with more relevance than in the previous law, for a period of five years. To date, the general director was elected by the Governing Council of the Corporation and ratified by the Valencian Courts after an appearance in which he explained his project. Previously, this position, which Alfred Costa occupies at the moment, had to go through a merit contest. With the law in force, it has not yet been determined what the formula would be. At the time of the meeting, at least formally, the administrative process was very green.
Among the candidates for president of the Board of Directors, Sergio Peláez, director of Cadena Cope in Valencia, has also been mentioned. His name was announced by the newspaper El Español and neither the Consell nor the PP have confirmed whether he was their candidate. The PP spokesperson in the Valencian Courts and Mazón’s right-hand man, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, said that he would be “a good name” and “a great journalist” for this purpose.
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