Anna Bosch, TVE journalist, in an image from October 2019.
The News Council of TVE, the body that represents the network's journalists, has ratified, in an extraordinary meeting held last week, the preliminary protection granted to the journalist Anna Bosch, who had denounced "clear intimidation" by the president of the corporation, José Manuel Pérez Tornero, for having spread a tweet critical of the company.
In the opinion, the council questions the way in which the management "dialogues" with the staff and demands the president and his entire team "not to resort to these intimidating ways again."
When evaluating the way in which the investigation has been carried out, the News Council regrets that the collaboration of the parties with the investigation has been "very uneven".
“Neither from the presidency nor from the general secretary has it been good enough to answer the questions sent by the News Council, which, it should be remembered, is an official body of RTVE”, explains the entity, which warns that, as a result, “no only less complete conclusions are obtained than desired, but rather the staff of RTVE informants is led to a scenario of contempt and abandonment”.
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TVE journalist Anna Bosch denounces intimidation by the president of the corporation
In its opinion, the council considers it proven that Pérez Tornero summoned Bosch to his office "unexpectedly and peremptorily" by means of a telephone call, during which the worker was reproached for publishing a tweet from her personal account.
“It is absolutely inadmissible that from the presidency of the corporation any grassroots worker, without managerial or editorial positions, is suddenly summoned to consultations to make any kind of reproach.
It is not the way, it is not the forms.
And even less so if in the background of the discussion is the freedom of expression of the employee”, collects the opinion.
Through a statement, the company's management had confirmed that, on May 5, the president of RTVE received Bosch at a meeting that had been delayed due to scheduling problems.
The note added that, in that meeting, Pérez Tornero transferred the chain's mechanisms to the journalist to formalize any complaints or reports that he might eventually have.
"At all times, when asked by the worker herself, the fundamental right to freedom of expression was defended, which she and the rest of the people who make up the corporation exercise on a daily basis."
Bosch, in the response brief sent to the council, states that on November 12, 2021 he received a call through the president's secretary.
“The reason for the call was some tweets published by me so that “I could convey my opinions about RTVE in person”.
In this regard, he proposed a meeting for Monday, November 15 in the morning.
To which I replied that it was impossible for me since I was covering an act of the Elcano Royal Institute that same day.
He didn't contact me again until the May 5 afternoon call.
Six months had passed."
Bosch recalls that the meeting on May 5 was a unilateral proposal and was motivated by the tweet in which he echoed information published by
Bluper
entitled "RTVE diverted the budget for the promotion of RTVE Play to the Great Consultation, a campaign without impact".
In that message, Bosch expressed his surprise at the news and opined: “@rtveplay is where the present is, the competition, the viewers to win, who no longer sit on the sofa at the time we tell them, nor are they going to see us like street vendors from plaza to plaza”.
RTVE Play is the free digital platform of the public channel.
For the council, the behavior of Pérez Tornero does not adjust neither to the specific competences of his position nor to the most basic common sense.
"So there is no more than aligning with the informant's story, which describes a radically asymmetrical context of power in which the feeling of intimidation is inevitable," exposes the agency.
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