Furor in Spain as journalist ‘blacklist’ revealed
Spain’s interior ministry apologized to journalists and denied muzzling the media on Tuesday after a report revealed it had secretly compiled a list of reporters and their political opinions.
The rare freedom of expression row in the EU nation comes with the Socialist-run ministry already under fire over its handling of July’s unprecedented migrant surge into Spain’s north African territory of Ceuta.
Online newspaper El Confidencial published on Tuesday an exclusive about “a dossier on dozens and dozens of active journalists … to monitor their political affiliation,” including directors and popular columnists.
‘Internal document’
The Federation of Journalists’ Associations of Spain (Fape) slammed the ministry for “introducing an element of surveillance and potential retaliation,” a practice that was “incompatible with the rule of law [and] can have consequences on the practice of critical journalism.”
“In a democratic society, no state body has the legitimacy to register, catalogue or ideologically profile those who practice journalism, as it constitutes a direct attack on press freedom,” Fape said in a statement.
The interior ministry said in a statement that the list was “an internal document” created in 2024 “with a consultative aim and without any intention of establishing censorship or any restriction or limit on the work of the journalists.”
The main opposition right-wing Popular Party accused the interior ministry of “attacking journalists” and contrasted its “blacklist” with the inability to foresee the Ceuta crisis, when more than 70,000 migrants entered from Morocco on July 30 and 31.
