244- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
The latest news
Spanish newspapers shift fewer copies than their
counterparts in other Western nations. In part they’re
still playing catch up, clawing back credibility after
enduring meddlesome state control in the 20thcentury.
Taken at face value, you’d think that might mean that
the newspaper industry is in some sort of trouble, but
no, not so. Under Franco, things were indeed pretty
bleak, with strict censorship enforced on the arts,
media and culture.The darkest times for press freedom
came between 1939 and 1966, when censorship was
tightest: any news reported was favourable to the
government first and accurate second. In 1966 a set
of laws were passed that brought an end to official
censorship and a new, marginally less downtrodden
press evolved. Not that it was particularly controversial;
there were still lots of rules in place and newspapers
were expected to self-censor to an extent. It wasn’t a
new era of press freedom but papers were allowed to
present opinions on a greater range of subjects. Only
when Franco died in 1975 and a new constitution
emerged three years later did freedom of the press
become a reality in Spain. At the forefront of this was
El País. Established in 1976, this Madrid-based daily was
an influential opinion-maker during the difficult transition
period between dictatorship and democracy.Spain’s first daily
newspaper, theDiario
de Madrid, first rolled
off the presses in 1758.
General decline
The papers you’ll see
on news-stands today
can be neatly divided
into two; those that
were established before
Franco came to power
and those that were
established after he
died. No newspaper that
was established during
his tenure is still in print.
6.1.1 Life off the leash: newspapers and magazines