Spain Wont Take a Leak
The big paradox is that todays access to information seems boundless, but journalists around the world face mounting restrictions on the free flow of news. Fear of truth is as old as the world.
The big paradox is that todays access to information seems boundless, but journalists around the world face mounting restrictions on the free flow of news. Fear of truth is as old as the world.
The pre-election clock is ticking frantically in Spain, with headlines leaking all that’s been kept silent for the last three years. Polls are now an even 4-way split between conservatives in power, socialists, liberal Ciudadanos and far-left Podemos. Practically no veteran politician seems votable, while the so-called new parties gain presence by the minute. The governing right-wing Popular Party has taken a major blow with a corruption case that made international headlines: Rodrigo Rato, ex-IMF head and former deputy PM and finance minister, was dramatically arrested on live television, accused of tax evasion and money-laundering.
As hundreds of thousands of unbelieving eyes watched the powerful politician ?long considered the architect of the pre-crisis economic boom? being herded into a police car, a single word came to everybody’s lips: scapegoat. The conservative party has been losing steam day by day before the elections, due to many Spaniards accusing president Rajoy of turning a blind eye on his colleagues’ sleazy conduct. But once the excitement subdued, questions arose. Could this tactless humiliation of a conservative leader really be part of their electoral campaign? What if it were a left-wing maneuver staged as a conservative blunder?
Hours before Mr. Rato’s spectacular arrest, information about the operation had been leaked to the press. Fifteen days later the Minister of Justice, Mr. Rafael Catalá, suggested that sanctions be applied to all Spanish media outlets that publish leaks. According to a recent survey made public by the American organization Freedom House, global press freedom declined in 2014 to its lowest point in more than 10 years. The big paradox is that today’s access to information seems boundless, but journalists around the world face mounting restrictions on the free flow of news. Fear of truth is as old as the world.
