The general director of À Punt, Alfred Costaannounced this Wednesday his “irrevocable” resignation as head of the Valencian public radio and television station “for personal reasons” after four and a half years in office.
The Governing Council of the Valencian Corporation of Communication Mitjans elected Costa after a public competition in February 2020. The Valencian Cortes ratified in March 2023, his continuity at the head of the regional media for three more years, until 2026.
It was before PP and Vox came to the autonomous government and approved a new À Punt law which simplified the corporate structure – from entities to one – and the way in which its representatives are elected. This rule indicates that the general director will be appointed by the regional Executive at the proposal of the Board of Directors.
In this context, Costa’s departure occurs a few days after it became known that the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazónoffered the direction of public radio and television to journalist Maribel Vilaplana – one of the best-known faces of the old Channel 9 – during a meal on October 29, the day of the catastrophic flood.
Precisely, in a farewell statement, Alfred Costa highlights “the titanic effort and the personal sacrifice of a good part of the staff and management teams during the extraordinary coverage of DANA”, referring to all the media.
«In our case, as you know, the coverage carried out has allowed us to reconnect like never before with a good part of the citizens. Never have our values of transparency, independence and proximity resonated so much in the homes of hundreds of thousands of Valencians who have trusted À Punt for information,” he points out.
In that sense, he thanks his team in the management of the entity that accepted “the challenge of carrying out a business and television project where all Valencians felt represented.” without any exclusion». Also to the workers who shared “from the first minute the concern and talent to connect through information, entertainment and fiction with an audience that asked to ‘be tuned in’.”
Likewise, Costa shows his gratitude to “the production companies in the strategic audiovisual sector that understood the demands and needs of the new audiovisual realities in general, but also the many particularities of the Valencian model of regional radio and television, in need as always of vital basic financial support to develop a very competitive industry in a market in constant renewal.
Although there was still a year and a half left in his term, with the start of the political term, pools began to be made about who would take over from Costa as head of À Punt. One of the names that was put on the table – with the endorsement of the PP – was that of, until October, director of Cope in the Valencian Community, Sergio Peláez.
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