The general director of IB3 admits that the news about the human chain of Es Trenc was "modified"
Josep Codony defends that the initial piece was “partisan” and that it needed to be completed; the workers had reported in July an interference by the News management
PalmaThe director general of IB3, Josep Codony, admitted this Thursday in Parliament that the management of the public television station "modified" the news report about the human chain in defense of Es Trenc, which brought together thousands of people between La Ràpita and Ses Covetes on July 5th. Codony justified the intervention because he considers that the piece initially produced had a "partisan" treatment, was incomplete, and did not incorporate all versions, according to the information gathered in his appearance this Thursday by Europa Press.
This confession comes almost three months after the IB3 works council publicly denounced that the News management had altered the text prepared by the team that covered the mobilization. At the time, the workers' representatives described the events as a "very serious attack" against the professionalism of the staff and asserted that they had not been allowed to offer the information with the criteria with which it had been produced.
Codony has now defended exactly the opposite: that modifying that piece was part of the ordinary functioning of a newsroom. As he explained, the journalist sent to the protest "only interviewed one of the parties and not the other" and, when the editor and the head of News reviewed the report, they "rectified" it to incorporate both versions. "It is normal," he argued, before defending the role of the editors and giving his support to the head of News, Sílvia Pol.
The final version, according to Codony, included both the position of the organizers and the police data on attendance, since the counts differed. "The piece had to be modified," he insisted in another parliamentary response, because "it was not complete" and "data was missing." He also remarked that that information continued to appear in different editions of the news programs during the following days.
What the workers denounced
The controversy, however, did not only focus on the count of participants. In the statement published the day after the mobilization, the works council maintained that the final version had “minimized” the actions of the mayor of Campos, Francisca Porquer (PP), during the protest. Porquer had positioned herself next to the writer Sebastià Alzamora and the GOB spokesperson, Tonina Siquier, while the manifesto was being read, an intrusion that provoked rebukes from some of the attendees.
The workers also criticized the treatment that IB3 gave to some graffiti that appeared on the beach bunkers. According to their complaint, the public television's digital channels gave prominence to this issue, which had also been disseminated by Porquer on her social networks. The journalist covering the event had also interviewed a resident of Colònia de Sant Jordi who claimed that the graffiti was already there before the demonstration, but this testimony was not ultimately published, according to what the committee explained at the time.
Codony defended the editorial decision this Thursday. According to the general director, pointing out that the graffiti had not been done on the same day as the protest “distracted attention,” because, in his opinion, what was relevant was that they existed in the context of the human chain. “The piece came out impeccable,” he concluded.
Rebukes for questioning the journalist
The appearance also led to a discussion about the professional who prepared the information. In response to MÉS per Mallorca deputy Marta Carrió, Codony recalled that the journalist had been the party's press officer. “Look at how sectarian IB3 is,” he ironized. Carrió had described the modification of the news item as a “serious attack” and “interference”.
Socialist deputy Ares Fernández also questioned the treatment of the mobilization and reproached Codony for referring to the editor's professional past. Fernández demanded “respect” for the house's professionals and urged him to make public the original version of the piece so it could be compared with the one that was finally broadcast. He also recalled that Parliament is processing a request for the appearance of the Head of News, Sílvia Pol, so she can explain her decisions.
Codony replied that Pol “does not have to defend anything” because, as he maintained, she is just doing her job. He also assured that at IB3, information is “rectified” “every day” and insisted that the final result of the coverage offered different versions of the events.
The dispute thus reopens a controversy that began the very day after the human chain, when the workers' representatives made public an unusual complaint against the News management. Now, for the first time, it is the general director himself who confirms that the news was modified, although he defends that the intervention responded to strictly journalistic criteria.