From C1 to B2: IB3 lowers the level of Catalan it requires from its editors

PalmaMÉS per Mallorca has denounced that on October 24, IB3 announced a new pool of editors in which the requirement for knowledge of Catalan is lowered to level B2 (advanced), whereas in the equivalent pool from 2023, during the previous legislative term, a C1 (functional mastery level) was required. For the eco-sovereigntist party, it is an "unjustifiable" reduction in a media outlet whose legal mission is the normalization of the Catalan language.

"A public television station must be the linguistic benchmark of the country. It is where thousands of families hear the language spoken well every day, where children learn words, and where the language becomes modern. Lowering the level of Catalan of its journalists is lowering the standards of IB3," stated the spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia. Apesteguia highlighted the double standard: "No one would imagine a television station in Spanish hiring editors who do not fully master Spanish, who make mistakes, lack vocabulary, or do not know how to correctly pronounce certain sounds. It would be unthinkable. So, why must we accept it with Catalan? A journalist works with language. It is their tool. Demanding an absolute command of it is neither a privilege nor a barrier: it is professionalism."

The eco-sovereigntist spokesperson framed this decision within the drift of IB3 since Josep Codony became its general director. "This lowering of standards is not an isolated incident. It is one more symptom of a television station that is losing quality, losing independence, and losing audience. We have seen interference in the news programs, a journalist singled out in parliament, and now an evident disdain for Catalan. IB3 has ceased to be everyone's television station to become the Government's television station," he lamented.

MÉS per Mallorca has recalled and remarked, through a statement, that the Law on Linguistic Normalization and the law creating the Public Broadcasting Entity of the Balearic Islands attribute to IB3 a central role in the promotion and normalization of the Catalan language. Therefore, the party has demanded that the call "be rectified" and that "a complete mastery of the Catalan language" be required of the editors. Furthermore, in the statement, they also announced that they will bring this issue to the Parliament and the Governing Council of the Entity.

"The language is not an administrative procedure that can be lowered when it suits. It is the raison d'être of IB3. If the public television does not set an example, who will?", concluded Apesteguia.