Spanish Radio Television (RTVE) has to make public the contracts that have been signed to have Silvia Intxaurrondo as presenter and to hire The revoltthe format presented by David Broncano and which has become the public’s star program. This has been resolved by the Transparency Council in separate resolutions after Public would have requested a copy of those contracts.
The public corporation resolved that it could not deliver the contracts requested by Public because they contained a confidentiality clause. But he Transparency Council and Good Government (CTBG) rejected that interpretation. The CTBG understands that The confidentiality clause included by RTVE in its contracts is not sufficient reason to skip compliance with the transparency law.
Therefore, The Council gave a deadline to the public corporation until last September 26 to deliver to Public a copy of the contracts that she has signed with Sukun Comunicación, SL, Silvia Intxaurrondo’s company through which the journalist provides her services as a presenter for public television.
Something similar happened with The revolt. In this case, The Transparency Council gave a deadline to RTVE until November 4 to deliver to Public a copy of the contract signed with the producers of the program: El Terrat and Encofrados Encofrasa. three weeks after that period expiredand almost two months since the one from Intxaurrondo did it, RTVE continues to fail to comply with Council resolutions and hide contracts with two of its star presenters.
A confidentiality clause is not enough
Public requested RTVE for a copy of the contracts with Sukun Comunicación last March. The World public At that time, the contract with the company to have Intxaurrondo as presenter and co-director of The time of 1 for two years it amounted to 537,000 euros. The journalist assured that the figures were incorrect.
In April, this medium requested a copy of the contracts to produce The revolt. That month was when the public corporation finally managed to reach an agreement to produce the new program and have David Broncano in it access prime time. The controversy hit the press and people did not stop talking about the possible figures of the contract.
In fact, The internal mess with the hiring of Broncano caused the RTVE Board of Directors to blow up. Elena Sánchez, interim president of the corporation at that time, and José Pablo López, content director, were dismissed. Due to the noise that was caused about the sums and conditions of both agreements and the lack of transparency of RTVE regarding its contracts, Public decided to send requests for information to the public corporation. The requests were made under the transparency law.
In both cases, RTVE denied the requests of Public. The corporation’s argument was based on the fact that the contracts contained a confidentiality clause that prevented them from being made public. These clauses are usually included in all public radio and television contracts with producers or presenters.
RTVE has not clarified how long the supposed confidentiality clause in the ‘La revuelta’ contract lasts.
About the agreements with Sukun Communication to hire Silvia Intxaurrondo, RTVE assured, in its resolution to this media’s request, that the confidentiality clause “extends until one year after the end of the contract”. In the case of The revoltthe corporation did not even indicate when the alleged clause expired.
Despite RTVE’s arguments, the Transparency Council understood that the contracts should be made public. The CTBG ensures that including These confidentiality clauses without further argument are not a reason for RTVE not to have to comply with the obligations of the transparency law..
“Relevant information” to know how RTVE is managed
The Council in its resolutions recalls that the transparency law “is applicable to the entire state public sector in which RTVE is included.” For this reason, the CTBG assures that “even in the clause itself It is clearly stated that this, by itself, it is not absoluteso it will be necessary to justify the concurrence” of any of the causes included in the transparency law “in order to be able to apply it as proof of denial of the requested contract.”
And because RTVE does not make “any argument that justifies the application of a restriction on the right of access”the Council upheld the claims made by Public for both cases. The body in charge of ensuring compliance with the transparency law also assured that RTVE’s argument “it is not enough to the extent that neither the damage that the disclosure of said contracts would cause has been objectiveized, nor has a prior weighing been carried out between the interest in access and the specific interest that is protected.”
The Council, furthermore, assured, agreeing with the requests for Publicthat “there is a public interest in accessing information, which It is relevant to know how this matter is managed in a corporation financed entirely with public money.“.
“RTVE did not provide reasons why the delivery of the contracting file was not appropriate”
In the case of the contract to incorporate The revolt on the Spanish Television grid, RTVE also sought to reject the request for processing. Public ensuring that this information was “in the process of preparation or general publication.” But The Transparency Council also dismantled this argument: “RTVE did not state in its resolution to what extent or for what reason the delivery of the contracting file was not appropriate, limiting itself to invoking the article on information in the process of preparation or general publication without offering any motivation in this regard.”
Opacity with Broncano’s salary
In the case of The revolt, RTVE not only has refused to make public the contract with the two companies that produce the program —El Terrat and Encofrados Encofrasa. The public corporation has also denied a request under the transparency law in which Public requested to know the salary of David Broncano and other collaborators of the programsuch as Jorge Ponce, Marcos Martínez ‘Grison’, Ricardo Castella, Laura Yustres ‘Lala Chus’, Valeria Ros, Yunez Chaib or Pablo Ibarburu.
The hiring of David Broncano is done directly by the producers of the program. Unlike other cases, such as Intxaurrondo, There is no contract on the part of RTVE dedicated solely to having the services of Broncano as presenter. In fact, the comedian is the owner, along with Jorge Ponce and Ricardo Castella, of Encofrados Encofrasa, SL, one of the companies that produces the program for Spanish Television.
RTVE reports the salaries of its internal and external presenters while hiding that of David Broncano
RTVE’s decision not to clarify the salary of Broncano and his collaborators contrasts with what the public corporation has been doing in recent times. With the rest of the presenters and external collaborators, RTVE has not had any problems reporting their salaries for a long time.. In fact, this same month of July they were revealed for the first time, thanks to information from Publicincluding the salaries of internal presenters, those who are officials or staff of the corporation.
That same month Public He also clarified some aspects about the hiring of Broncano and Intxaurrondo, including the salary of the Basque journalist. In that same information this medium already spoke of RTVE’s “double yardstick with transparency”. A double standard that has been applied again on this occasion. While the corporation has agreed to report on the salaries of its presenters, including, for example, Silvia Intxaurrondo herself; Now he refuses to do the same with David Broncano’s salary.
Public has asked Mercedes Martel, director of Media Relations at RTVE, why the corporation has not complied with the resolutions of the Transparency and Good Governance Council and if it is going to do so. Your response has been limited to directing this medium to the form to make requests for information of the Transparency Portal of the General State Administration. A form that is public and that anyone who wants to make a request for information to RTVE can use at any time. In fact, that same form is the one you used Public to request contracts with Intxaurrondo and The revolt that RTVE continues to hide.
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