I am sorry to keep bringing up the same issue every time we go to the polls. However, it is so shocking that it needs to be emphasised time and again: Catalonia’s public broadcaster —TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio— has been banned from using the words “exile” and “political prisoners” until November 10, the day when the Spanish elections will be held.
It is fair to say that a state of emergency has been declared on these news outlets, a decision that violates the freedom of expression of reporters and the public’s right to accurate reporting. If the slant of a particular news outlet and the professional view of its newsroom is that president Puigdemont is an exile and vice president Junqueras is a political prisoner, then so be it. Then it will be up to their viewers to decide whether that is the slant they prefer in a news bulletin.
Such a measure is unheard of in Europe and it turns the election campaign into a period of anomalous reporting that is unbecoming of a democracy.
