The Biggest Prize Of All: IB3

Ten years ago, in September 2005, IB3 began regular broadcasts in the Balearics. It had first gone on air as a television channel on 1 March of that year as a trial - the day chosen having been Balearics Day. The radio station was fully operational from that day.

To say that IB3 has enjoyed a smooth history since its launch would be wrong. Things have been anything but smooth. But in order to assess IB3's contribution, one has to divorce the politics from the actual broadcasting. The two do most definitely collide, but the impression is of a broadcaster that has achieved modest success despite the politics.

Since its inception in 2005, IB3 has had seven director-generals. They include the former vice-president of the Balearics, Antoni Gómez, who was an interim appointment in 2011, and José Manuel Ruiz, who failed in his attempt to succeed Manu Onieva as mayor of Calvia for the Partido Popular in May this year. Of the seven, five have been from the PP, including the current one, Josep Codony.

He was recently hauled up in front of parliament, ostensibly to answer questions regarding the appointment of director of television he had made without consulting the politicians: it was swiftly withdrawn. It was evident that he went to this appearance prepared to have a scrap. He would have known what was coming and it did. Alberto Jarabo (Podemos): "IB3 has been violated and perverted". David Abril (Més): "Why have you not resigned?". Silvia Cano (PSOE): "You hired a straw man ... and have caused sectarianism at IB3".

Codony hasn't resigned because, as he points out, the government hasn't come up with anyone to succeed him and also because, if he were to resign, this would create great problems for the simple fact that the government cannot come to agreement regarding his successor. He's a dead man walking, but for now he remains. In the normal (sic) course of events, he would probably have already been replaced. Change of government means changes among the ranks of senior appointments for positions at the head of government-dependent organisations, of which IB3 is one.

Making these appointments has become a poisoned chalice, with Podemos to the fore in challenging them, as is the case with Juli Fuster at the health service. IB3, though, is arguably the greatest prize when it comes to what is a political appointment. A public broadcaster, it is the very public face of government, which brings the implication of political interference.

With five of the seven director-generals having been from the PP, who created IB3 under the second Matas administration, the parties of the left now sense their chance to definitively stamp their mark on the broadcaster. Of the two other director-generals, one was from the old Unió Mallorquina, while the other, Pedro Terrassa, was from PSOE. For a period of some twelve months, there was a director-general from a left-leaning party. The left now want to redress this imbalance.

Codony has denied that there was interference from the PP while it was still in government. He contrasts this with how things now are. The political involvement extends, he says, to the choice of films that IB3 has to show. The commandment for this has come from Esperança Camps, the Més minister for transparency, participation and culture. Hers was an unusual ministerial appointment in that she had no direct political background, other than political views. Rather than a politician per se, she was and is an author and a television journalist. The suspicion, one that Codony has expressed, is that Camps could be his successor.

Though Codony says otherwise, there was interference from the PP, and it manifested itself in different ways. Groups like the environmentalists GOB were given reduced exposure, while there was the instruction to use the Mallorquín "the" instead of the Catalan "the" in news reports (something that has now been reversed). This interference is continuing, and Codony, who the left would be keen to see gone before the general election and all the reporting that this will entail, will have been the latest in the line of discontinuity at the head of IB3. 

The broadcaster has had enormous amounts of money lavished on it, and it has been said to be the second most expensive regional public broadcaster in Spain. Given the expenditure, it should be performing well. A typical audience share of six to seven per cent is what it attains. At least its finances are now in better shape, Codony saying that it has been operating without a deficit for three years.

Despite the politics, it is not doing badly, but might it do better were it not constantly subject to interference? It is an important service, but the politicians are failing it and so failing also the public. The interference won't end though. It's too much of a prize.