Speaking today about the excessive media ownership of the town hall, which she described as nothing more than a mouthpiece for Ronda’s mayor and PSOE, Mari Paz Fernandez declared she would eliminate two of the three public news media inthe city if her party is elected in the Mary municipal elections.
Over the last several years the town hall under Antonio Marin Lara and his government have built up Radio Ronda, Ronda Television, and Ronda Actualidad as the voice of the PSOE party, and given the reach of the free tabloid sized paper, Ronda Actualidad, Ms Fernandez was especially critical of the excessive media representation of PSOE at the expense of other parties in the city.
The costs of maintaining these news media is said by Fernandez to be more than 500,000 euros per year, money she would like to almost totally reallocate to subsidised housing for families in distress. Calling for the closure of Ronda Actualidad and Ronda Television, Fernandez stated she might be willing to see the continuance of Radio Ronda, but with a substantially changed format, and relaxation of political control.
In the past various people within Ronda, including representatives of the Partido Popular and the Partido Andalucista have described PSOE appointments to the three media in Ronda as unfair, and allegedly undemocratic. The existence of three municipal media that operate in direct competition to privately owned independent media worries Fernandez who has in the past stated that the Partido Popular is not given equal coverage by the PSOE appointed management of the municipal media.
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This issue may not be as simple as it appears. Does the PP understand that both visitors and locals receive the Ronda television stations and the advertising that appears on them? Expanding the breadth of political spectrum and reducing costs would be helpful, but how many of the families in distress that the PP proposes to help depend on the local businesses advertised? How many tourist euros do these stations generate? The families in distress would surely include those who currently work for these stations, but would be unemployed should the stations be eliminated.