Jorge Javier Vázquez, on the right, along with various collaborators from 'Sálvame', in April 2022.Telecinco
The departure of Paolo Vasile from Mediaset, on January 1, has led to a radical change of course in the content of the channels, especially in Telecinco and Cuatro, the two main offers of the group managed by the family of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The new board of directors, headed by its president, Borja Prado, and by the CEO, Alessandro Salem, has transmitted to the entire staff a catalog of mandatory regulations that prohibit presenters or collaborators from issuing opinions, preferences or political comments on entertainment programs.
It also prevents all those who participate in any space on the channel from attacking or criticizing another Mediaset program, its presenters or collaborators.
These rules —which, according to
El Mundo,
form an annex to the
Mediaset
Code of Ethics approved in 2012 and updated at the board of directors in July 2019—, have entered into force this Monday, now updated by the new directive.
From now on, political opinions can only be expressed in news formats that have a specific section, as is the case, for example, in
El programa de Ana Rosa.
But they will be banned from other entertainment spaces, such as
Sálvame,
in which the presenters and collaborators frequently tend to make comments of a political nature and openly criticize their companions on the set.
"Entertainment programs are just that, entertainment and, therefore, their presenters and collaborators must refrain from issuing opinions, preferences or political comments within the program," the guideline states.
The chain explains that since it was approved, the
Code of Ethics
is a mandatory internal regulation, which has been the subject of various modifications and updates "depending on the changes experienced in the social and competitive context of the company, as well as in the legislation that regulates each and every one of the matters that are the object of treatment of the code itself and that structure the activity of the audiovisual group”.
The document specifies that drivers are responsible for what is expressed in their programs and that they must immediately stop any intervention that could give rise to criminal or civil liability for the chain.
And it states that the sanctions that certain comments may incur will no longer fall on Mediaset, but on the person who makes them or on the production company that signs the program.
It specifies that no presenter or collaborator may leave a study "live and without justified cause" and that, in case of doing so, "it will be considered final for contractual purposes".
In addition, it is prohibited for collaborators to take advantage of their participation in the different spaces to promote their products or their own brand.
From now on, any advertising manifestation must be communicated in advance and in writing to Publiespaña, the Mediaset division in charge of marketing advertisements.
These new rules are added to the recent communication sent by the company in which it gives instructions so that certain regular characters from the pink chronicle stop appearing on Mediaset screens.
These include Rocío Carrasco, Fidel Albiac, José Ortega Cano, Kiko Rivera or Bárbara Rey, many of whom are regular faces of
Sálvame,
the space presented by Jorge Javier Vázquez.
Some of them have provided succulent audience data during the stage in which Vasile was in charge of Mediaset.
The new management team has opted to sacrifice audience results for the benefit of content, removing scuffles between collaborators and mere gossip about the lives of celebrities from the grid.
The
Code of Ethics
is an action guide for both employees and managers and members of the board of directors in all their professional relationships.
And it also applies to natural or legal persons, such as advertisers, media agencies or suppliers, who maintain any type of relationship with Mediaset.
It is not the first time that the company has been forced to strengthen its rules to prevent the issuance of certain formats.
Already in 2004, in the midst of a wave of trash TV, Telecinco issued a catalog with 21 rules to suppress those contents dedicated to gossip about the lives of celebrities that could violate the rights of minors.
On that occasion, Vasile admitted that the rules issued did not respond to "the editorial line of the chain, but to the judicial line."
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