It wasn't the best of weeks for the Podemos sisterhood. Despite having been suspended by the politburo in Madrid, Xe-Lo mysteriously still managed to bustle into the Balearic parliament and take her place on the speaker's chair. It wasn't, therefore, the best of weeks for other parliamentarians. No one was paying any attention to them. All eyes were on the suspended Xe-Lo.
Suspension was the polite way of describing the early stages of the Podemos purge of dissidents. Along with the purge was coming the spin. Xe-Lo, we were led to believe, had applied pressure to the initials - B.B. (Biel Barceló) and C.C. (Catalina Cladera) - to seek to ensure continued funding to the laboratory run by the alarmingly big-haired Podemosite doctor, Daniel Bachiller, who could himself be mistaken for a member of the sisterhood.
The idea that there was pressure being applied seemed somewhat fanciful. Had she tied B.B. to his parliamentary chair and poked him until he agreed to handing over every last euro of tourist tax revenue to the Bachiller lab? And what about C.C.? A fully paid-up member of the PSOE sisterhood, it was unlikely that she would accede to demands made from someone - Xe-Lo - who fell out in spectacular fashion with sweet and friendly Francina Armengol when she jumped PSOE ship some four years ago and ended up in the ranks of Podemos. To put it bluntly, Francina can't stand her.
And on closer examination, what was really the fuss about the Bachiller funding? He may not have been coming up with the research goods, but it turns out that this arrangement goes back some ten years. Should we conclude, therefore, that it was all the fault of Jaume Matas? It was during his reign that the funding started, and it continued through the Antich phase and on into the Bauzá era, when austerity was all the rage but apparently not when it came to a lab that wasn't achieving a great deal.
While Xe-Lo was resisting calls from the likes of Wild Man Més, David Abril, to vacate the speaker's chair, another one of the Podemos sisterhood was active in seeking a counter-purge. The also suspended Montse Seijas, who no one had ever heard of until last week, denounced Podemos general secretary Alberto Jarabo over his connections with the broadcaster IB3. Jarabo, in his former life, was a producer. Seijas, it turned out, had commissioned a report which raised "alarm" where she was concerned because of the apparent ongoing, if indirect, relationship between Jarabo and IB3; essentially, the production company for which he had been working has allegedly been getting more work. This report was, according to Seijas, sat on because of its supposedly defamatory nature.
Questions have been asked as to why Podemos High Command got involved in the local issue of the Bachiller lab and who put High Command up to suspending Xe-Lo and Seijas. The IB3 angle suddenly made things appear (potentially) somewhat clearer.
While all this local business was going on, High Command, in the form of Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, was stamping his authority more firmly on the party. Amidst the internecine struggle between Iglesias and the Infant Iñigo Errejón, an Iglesias man, Ramón Espinar, was named general secretary of the party in Madrid. The loser was Rita Maestre, most famed for having taken her clothes off (well some) in a Madrid chapel and therefore having ended up in court on a charge of denying religious freedom (she was fined some four thousand euros). Rita is referred to, in somewhat disparaging terms, as "la chica de Errejón".
Anyway, her defeat confirmed the progressively more left-wing shift of Iglesias, who is now firmly aligned with the anti-capitalist extreme wing of Podemos, of which the Balearics Boot Girl, Laura Camargo, is a leading light. And it is Laura, as everyone knows, who wears the trousers in the Balearics. Jarabo is her soul mate. The Seijas IB3 intervention was a declaration of internal war. And the winners will not be either another Errejón "chica", Xe-Lo, or Seijas.
Showing posts with label IB3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IB3. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2016
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Gastronomy And Astronomy: IB3
The Mallorca (aka Balearic) public broadcaster, IB3, has a new director-general. He's a man with long(ish) hair, a couple of days' stubble, a moustache and glasses. Worryingly, he reminds me of a university history tutor from many years ago, from a time - the 1970s - when long(ish) hair, a couple of days' stubble (or preferably several months), a moustache and glasses, or combinations thereof, were considered de rigueur among the academics of north Lancashire.
In those days of yore, a further requisite was that academics wore their left-wing credentials on their lapels or in their wallets. Card-carriers of the Communist Party, Socialist Workers' Party or some mad Maoist collective were considered normal. Right-wing academics stood out like a very sore thumbing of the nose in the general direction of Marxism, Trotskyism and various other isms. They were looked upon as cranks, especially by the hairies in the ranks of the students' union.
None of the above, in terms of political affiliation, will apply to Andreu Manresa, the hirsute, bespectacled, latest incumbent of the IB3 hot seat. But as he is a journalist with "El País", the assumption is - probably not a wrong one - that his politics veer towards the left. "El País" is "The Guardian" of the Spanish media: academics of the good old days of unrest on the campuses would purchase their copies of "The Guardian" along with "The Morning Star" from the campus newsagent's and wrap the former inside the latter in order to boost street cred while marching off to the lecture hall.
Manresa, for anyone who attended Santa Ponsa's Moors and Christians' festivities in September, may well be familiar. He delivered the "pregón" for the Rei en Jaume fiesta, alluding to Calvia not as a village or as a town but as a "constellation", "a galaxy on Earth", with idiosyncrasies and contrasts - from the mega yachts of Portals to mega nights out in Maga. (Actually, he didn't say the latter about Magalluf; I've made that up.) If memory serves, he also had things to say about aubergines and almonds. And so, with all this in mind, what does the new DG have in store for IB3? A lot of cookery shows probably. Gastronomy and astronomy. The cuisine constellation.
One thing that is fairly evident is that the ruling junta in the Balearics is fairly pleased with their man - I'm sorry, pleased with the man; slip of the possessive pronoun. Broadcasting neutrality and all that, the leader of Podemos, Alberto Jarabo, has spoken in glowing terms of Manresa's experience and independence. He will, he says, "dignify" the public broadcaster, thus implying that it hasn't always been dignified, and in this regard he isn't totally inaccurate. Prestige will return, adds Jarabo, to the "profession of journalism".
Political lack of neutrality appears to have played a part in the roles of previous DGs, even if they have denied this. Jarabo believes that Manresa will not be subject to the pressures that others have experienced. His independence will out. But the very fact that Podemos (and PSOE and Més) are pleased with themselves and pleased at the appointment suggests that the other lots will be less so. And this is indeed the case. The PP, while recognising his professionalism, are somewhat miffed at the fact that they weren't asked about the appointment. Ciudadanos is the only party to specifically draw into question his independence, observing that his journalistic career has been under one particular "political colour": it's that old "El País"-"Guardian" thing.
It has been said of Podemos in the Balearics that one thing above all that it has craved is IB3. If this is indeed so, then one has to ask why. But though in apparent rapture at the appointment, it doesn't follow that Manresa will be at the beck and call of Podemos or indeed of the two government parties. One can hope that this is the case, as the broadcaster does need to be de-politicised. Jarabo implies that there won't be pressures. He should stick to his words then.
Within all of this, though, one has to also ask: does anyone really care about the appointment other than politicians? Of subjects that concern the local population, included among whom are foreign residents, I would guess that the DG of IB3 is fairly low on the list. Yet, the appointment and the fuss regarding the now ex-DG have commanded a great deal of media attention. Perhaps it's all a case of the media talking about itself and to itself. More than anything, the general public are only interested in there being a decent broadcaster, one that is paid for by their taxes. Which is how it should be anywhere. Leave the DG to get on with his job. And if that means gastronomy and astronomy, then so be it.
In those days of yore, a further requisite was that academics wore their left-wing credentials on their lapels or in their wallets. Card-carriers of the Communist Party, Socialist Workers' Party or some mad Maoist collective were considered normal. Right-wing academics stood out like a very sore thumbing of the nose in the general direction of Marxism, Trotskyism and various other isms. They were looked upon as cranks, especially by the hairies in the ranks of the students' union.
None of the above, in terms of political affiliation, will apply to Andreu Manresa, the hirsute, bespectacled, latest incumbent of the IB3 hot seat. But as he is a journalist with "El País", the assumption is - probably not a wrong one - that his politics veer towards the left. "El País" is "The Guardian" of the Spanish media: academics of the good old days of unrest on the campuses would purchase their copies of "The Guardian" along with "The Morning Star" from the campus newsagent's and wrap the former inside the latter in order to boost street cred while marching off to the lecture hall.
Manresa, for anyone who attended Santa Ponsa's Moors and Christians' festivities in September, may well be familiar. He delivered the "pregón" for the Rei en Jaume fiesta, alluding to Calvia not as a village or as a town but as a "constellation", "a galaxy on Earth", with idiosyncrasies and contrasts - from the mega yachts of Portals to mega nights out in Maga. (Actually, he didn't say the latter about Magalluf; I've made that up.) If memory serves, he also had things to say about aubergines and almonds. And so, with all this in mind, what does the new DG have in store for IB3? A lot of cookery shows probably. Gastronomy and astronomy. The cuisine constellation.
One thing that is fairly evident is that the ruling junta in the Balearics is fairly pleased with their man - I'm sorry, pleased with the man; slip of the possessive pronoun. Broadcasting neutrality and all that, the leader of Podemos, Alberto Jarabo, has spoken in glowing terms of Manresa's experience and independence. He will, he says, "dignify" the public broadcaster, thus implying that it hasn't always been dignified, and in this regard he isn't totally inaccurate. Prestige will return, adds Jarabo, to the "profession of journalism".
Political lack of neutrality appears to have played a part in the roles of previous DGs, even if they have denied this. Jarabo believes that Manresa will not be subject to the pressures that others have experienced. His independence will out. But the very fact that Podemos (and PSOE and Més) are pleased with themselves and pleased at the appointment suggests that the other lots will be less so. And this is indeed the case. The PP, while recognising his professionalism, are somewhat miffed at the fact that they weren't asked about the appointment. Ciudadanos is the only party to specifically draw into question his independence, observing that his journalistic career has been under one particular "political colour": it's that old "El País"-"Guardian" thing.
It has been said of Podemos in the Balearics that one thing above all that it has craved is IB3. If this is indeed so, then one has to ask why. But though in apparent rapture at the appointment, it doesn't follow that Manresa will be at the beck and call of Podemos or indeed of the two government parties. One can hope that this is the case, as the broadcaster does need to be de-politicised. Jarabo implies that there won't be pressures. He should stick to his words then.
Within all of this, though, one has to also ask: does anyone really care about the appointment other than politicians? Of subjects that concern the local population, included among whom are foreign residents, I would guess that the DG of IB3 is fairly low on the list. Yet, the appointment and the fuss regarding the now ex-DG have commanded a great deal of media attention. Perhaps it's all a case of the media talking about itself and to itself. More than anything, the general public are only interested in there being a decent broadcaster, one that is paid for by their taxes. Which is how it should be anywhere. Leave the DG to get on with his job. And if that means gastronomy and astronomy, then so be it.
Thursday, October 08, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Jeremy Kyle For IB3
It is of course one of the priorities identified in the manual for conducting a coup d'état. "Item 3: Storm the state broadcaster and take over the network. Item 3.1: Announce who you are - The United Freedom People's Liberation Army of (add as applicable). Item 3.2: Incite counter-rebellion by subjecting the proletariat to several days of unrelentingly tedious classical music combined with images of peasants tolling in fields under a baking sun working for the greater glory of the fatherland." Alternatively, if you have lesser ambitions, i.e. coups are not on your agenda but control of the broadcaster is, you simply insist on running it, thus making your governmental partners suspicious and incurring the opprobrium of a discredited opposition.
The Balearic Partido Popular does have some almighty great brass neck at times. Reduced to a parliamentary rabble by all the off-field shenanigans involving finding a temporary leader for the party, it has been left to Marga Prohens to womanfully fly the local PP flag with its seagull with newly clipped wings. Marga hasn't done a wholly bad job - getting the nepotism dig in about the health service, for example - but when it comes to the IB3 broadcaster she has been staggering with all the lack of credibility of a double amputee. She can stand on neither leg as both were long ago cut from under her, all the consequence of how the PP manipulated the broadcaster for its own ends: how it effectively airbrushed the likes of GOB or the Obra Cultural Balear out of Mallorcan political society; how it managed to turn the use of the definite article "the" into a rallying cry for Catalanists both moderate and hardline as well as normally otherwise indifferent; how it arranged for airtime to minimise pre-election exposure of Podemos (and others).
This latter factor does perhaps play a part in Podemos's ambitions for the broadcaster. Not a coup, just control of it. This, at any rate, is how Marga sees things. "The sole objective of Podemos is the control of public communication media," she declared last week. If this is indeed Podemos's heart's desire, then you can hardly say it will be the first time that a local political party has stamped its authority all over IB3. The PP did so with almost totalitarian effectiveness, installing first the vice-president, Antonio "Nipper" Gómez, as its director (albeit in a transitionary capacity when the previous director resigned), then he would have been mayor of Calvia but isn't, José Manuel Ruiz.
As Podemos's Dave Spart, leader Alberto Jarabo, used to have a day job making films, the IB3 takeover may well be all part of a wider plan to reveal Alberto's oeuvre. What might this include? Dull but worthy documentaries charting the struggles of the Bolivian working-class of the nineteenth century? A profile of jolly Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela? Who can say. But Podemos intentions - their proposed director for IB3 - come in the guise of their man in Manacor who is currently combining council duties for citizen service with looking after the town's cemeteries. Carles Grimalt is his name, and Carles, replete with not one but two earrings, and photographed wearing a fetching, flowery shirt, has all the looks of a member of the Bee Gees backing group circa the later "Night Fever" era. Indeed, were he to sport a beard, he would be Barry Gibb.
Not that earrings should bar someone from running a telly and radio station. But if Podemos are serious in wanting someone with suitable credentials, why not broaden the search? There must be all manner of potential candidates knocking around. Keith Chegwin perhaps. Or what about Jeremy Kyle? That'll be it. That's what he's been doing here in Mallorca. There had to have been some good reason. Jeremy's not bad on the old participation thing, getting idiots to make even bigger idiots of themselves and so on. Ideal for the new Podemos participatory era therefore. Kyle it is then.
* Podemos have since discovered that the law doesn't permit the appointment of a member of a political party's executive, so Grimalt cannot be IB3's director.
** And now they have discovered the law does permit it. Or something like that.
The Balearic Partido Popular does have some almighty great brass neck at times. Reduced to a parliamentary rabble by all the off-field shenanigans involving finding a temporary leader for the party, it has been left to Marga Prohens to womanfully fly the local PP flag with its seagull with newly clipped wings. Marga hasn't done a wholly bad job - getting the nepotism dig in about the health service, for example - but when it comes to the IB3 broadcaster she has been staggering with all the lack of credibility of a double amputee. She can stand on neither leg as both were long ago cut from under her, all the consequence of how the PP manipulated the broadcaster for its own ends: how it effectively airbrushed the likes of GOB or the Obra Cultural Balear out of Mallorcan political society; how it managed to turn the use of the definite article "the" into a rallying cry for Catalanists both moderate and hardline as well as normally otherwise indifferent; how it arranged for airtime to minimise pre-election exposure of Podemos (and others).
This latter factor does perhaps play a part in Podemos's ambitions for the broadcaster. Not a coup, just control of it. This, at any rate, is how Marga sees things. "The sole objective of Podemos is the control of public communication media," she declared last week. If this is indeed Podemos's heart's desire, then you can hardly say it will be the first time that a local political party has stamped its authority all over IB3. The PP did so with almost totalitarian effectiveness, installing first the vice-president, Antonio "Nipper" Gómez, as its director (albeit in a transitionary capacity when the previous director resigned), then he would have been mayor of Calvia but isn't, José Manuel Ruiz.
As Podemos's Dave Spart, leader Alberto Jarabo, used to have a day job making films, the IB3 takeover may well be all part of a wider plan to reveal Alberto's oeuvre. What might this include? Dull but worthy documentaries charting the struggles of the Bolivian working-class of the nineteenth century? A profile of jolly Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela? Who can say. But Podemos intentions - their proposed director for IB3 - come in the guise of their man in Manacor who is currently combining council duties for citizen service with looking after the town's cemeteries. Carles Grimalt is his name, and Carles, replete with not one but two earrings, and photographed wearing a fetching, flowery shirt, has all the looks of a member of the Bee Gees backing group circa the later "Night Fever" era. Indeed, were he to sport a beard, he would be Barry Gibb.
Not that earrings should bar someone from running a telly and radio station. But if Podemos are serious in wanting someone with suitable credentials, why not broaden the search? There must be all manner of potential candidates knocking around. Keith Chegwin perhaps. Or what about Jeremy Kyle? That'll be it. That's what he's been doing here in Mallorca. There had to have been some good reason. Jeremy's not bad on the old participation thing, getting idiots to make even bigger idiots of themselves and so on. Ideal for the new Podemos participatory era therefore. Kyle it is then.
* Podemos have since discovered that the law doesn't permit the appointment of a member of a political party's executive, so Grimalt cannot be IB3's director.
** And now they have discovered the law does permit it. Or something like that.
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
The Never-Ending Argument Of Language
There was this interview. It was with the philologist who is responsible for linguistic use at the IB3 broadcaster. At the conclusion of the interview she says of the Balearic language that it doesn't exist. To speak of a Balearic language is provocative, just as it is when one refers to the Catalan of Mallorca. It is the philological way, but she doesn't like it because, for centuries, we have called it Mallorquín.
In Mallorca, it can appear, there are more philologists than you can shake a dictionary at. These "students" of languages, be they actual students, professors or hobbyists, proliferate to an extent that is hard to comprehend for those of us brought up without an obsession with arguing over languages and their historical significance. Philologist was a word, a profession if you like, that I was well aware of before coming to Mallorca, but never had it occurred to me that there would be a place where the philologist seems as common as the town hall official, and as equally bloody-minded in all likelihood.
And the town halls have their own quasi-philologists, the councillors who are charged with the responsibility for what, through literal translation, is linguistic normalisation but which is better translated as standardisation. Either noun will do, as the whole term is a euphemism for Catalan. Or is it?
The philologist of the interview, Mariantònia Lladó, has a contentious responsibility at IB3. Anything to do with language has the potential to be contentious - which is one reason why there are so many philologists knocking around - and at IB3 it has been just this. It has all had to do with an issue that will, for the great majority of you, seem impenetrable and arcane, but that is because you will not be obsessed with the detail of language, one that is so micro-scrutinised that there are arguments which haggle over the use of the word "the". At IB3, "the" became a politico-philological battle. The Partido Popular, which ruled the broadcaster through its government vice-president Antonio Gomez and then José Manuel Ruiz, who failed so spectacularly in becoming mayor of Calvia, insisted that the Mallorquín "the" should be used and not the Catalan "the". Mariantònia, elsewhere in the interview, reveals her "the" preference, lamenting the fact that, except out in the villages of Mallorca, the "new generations" use the literary "the", i.e. the Catalan one.
For the Bauzá PP, so desirous of distancing itself from anything marked with the stamp of Catalonia, the intervention over "the" at IB3 went to the heart of its linguistic politics, and the very notion of there being a linguistic politics can strike many as being somewhat absurd. But that's because they are not bound up in the ceaseless polemic that can appear to define all politics of Mallorca.
The PP line, and that of Mariantònia (and I hope I'm not misrepresenting her), is to promote the languages of the islands at the expense of Catalan. Yet this can appear to be - in political terms - contradictory. The PP disassociates itself from notions of nationalism - those which are not Spanish nationalist - but it advocates a distinct language, Mallorquín. And what, as far as nationalism is concerned, is more nationalist than a language? But then, it isn't contradictory if it is accepted that there are minority languages/dialects within the framework of the grand nationalism of Spain and it also isn't contradictory if this acceptance is one to cock a snook at the pretensions of Catalan nationalism which involve a geographically broader area than just Catalonia - the mythical Catalan Lands.
Inherent to this line is an argument that the languages of the islands, and each island lays claim to having one, are the products of some form of separate development. Well, quite clearly there has been. When there are 250 plus kilometres of sea that divorce Mallorca from the Catalan heartland as well as a history of Arabic language and Vulgar Latin (and it is this which is the root of the "the" argument), there was bound to have been linguistic modification. But the mother tongue is Catalan (and/or variants that themselves influenced and created Catalan). To refer to the "Catalan of Mallorca" is, however, says Mariantònia, provocative. And in this, for many Mallorcans in my experience, she is right. Mallorcans speak Mallorquín and not Catalan, albeit there are obvious, very strong similarities.
So, one comes back to this business of linguistic normalisation, sometimes determined at town halls by councillors who proudly speak their Mallorquín (and nothing else) but within an ideological framework of Catalan nationalism and with responsibility for the normalisation of Catalan. And ditto the schools, where the argument is over the promotion of Catalan, not of Mallorquín.
Still, this all helps to allow philology to flourish and for there to be never-ending arguments, and the fact is that they will never end.
In Mallorca, it can appear, there are more philologists than you can shake a dictionary at. These "students" of languages, be they actual students, professors or hobbyists, proliferate to an extent that is hard to comprehend for those of us brought up without an obsession with arguing over languages and their historical significance. Philologist was a word, a profession if you like, that I was well aware of before coming to Mallorca, but never had it occurred to me that there would be a place where the philologist seems as common as the town hall official, and as equally bloody-minded in all likelihood.
And the town halls have their own quasi-philologists, the councillors who are charged with the responsibility for what, through literal translation, is linguistic normalisation but which is better translated as standardisation. Either noun will do, as the whole term is a euphemism for Catalan. Or is it?
The philologist of the interview, Mariantònia Lladó, has a contentious responsibility at IB3. Anything to do with language has the potential to be contentious - which is one reason why there are so many philologists knocking around - and at IB3 it has been just this. It has all had to do with an issue that will, for the great majority of you, seem impenetrable and arcane, but that is because you will not be obsessed with the detail of language, one that is so micro-scrutinised that there are arguments which haggle over the use of the word "the". At IB3, "the" became a politico-philological battle. The Partido Popular, which ruled the broadcaster through its government vice-president Antonio Gomez and then José Manuel Ruiz, who failed so spectacularly in becoming mayor of Calvia, insisted that the Mallorquín "the" should be used and not the Catalan "the". Mariantònia, elsewhere in the interview, reveals her "the" preference, lamenting the fact that, except out in the villages of Mallorca, the "new generations" use the literary "the", i.e. the Catalan one.
For the Bauzá PP, so desirous of distancing itself from anything marked with the stamp of Catalonia, the intervention over "the" at IB3 went to the heart of its linguistic politics, and the very notion of there being a linguistic politics can strike many as being somewhat absurd. But that's because they are not bound up in the ceaseless polemic that can appear to define all politics of Mallorca.
The PP line, and that of Mariantònia (and I hope I'm not misrepresenting her), is to promote the languages of the islands at the expense of Catalan. Yet this can appear to be - in political terms - contradictory. The PP disassociates itself from notions of nationalism - those which are not Spanish nationalist - but it advocates a distinct language, Mallorquín. And what, as far as nationalism is concerned, is more nationalist than a language? But then, it isn't contradictory if it is accepted that there are minority languages/dialects within the framework of the grand nationalism of Spain and it also isn't contradictory if this acceptance is one to cock a snook at the pretensions of Catalan nationalism which involve a geographically broader area than just Catalonia - the mythical Catalan Lands.
Inherent to this line is an argument that the languages of the islands, and each island lays claim to having one, are the products of some form of separate development. Well, quite clearly there has been. When there are 250 plus kilometres of sea that divorce Mallorca from the Catalan heartland as well as a history of Arabic language and Vulgar Latin (and it is this which is the root of the "the" argument), there was bound to have been linguistic modification. But the mother tongue is Catalan (and/or variants that themselves influenced and created Catalan). To refer to the "Catalan of Mallorca" is, however, says Mariantònia, provocative. And in this, for many Mallorcans in my experience, she is right. Mallorcans speak Mallorquín and not Catalan, albeit there are obvious, very strong similarities.
So, one comes back to this business of linguistic normalisation, sometimes determined at town halls by councillors who proudly speak their Mallorquín (and nothing else) but within an ideological framework of Catalan nationalism and with responsibility for the normalisation of Catalan. And ditto the schools, where the argument is over the promotion of Catalan, not of Mallorquín.
Still, this all helps to allow philology to flourish and for there to be never-ending arguments, and the fact is that they will never end.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Chaos And Comedy
If the past few days in Mallorca have been a confusion of pre-electoral jockeying-for-position, then just wait until after today. What chaos may yet await us, unless Bauzá has his "Cameron moment" and sweeps into re-elected power with the sounds of teachers booing and braying in the background.
As things turned out, the strike arranged for the green tide of educational activists was a bit of a damp squib, albeit that the dampness of a squib has to be measured - as always in Mallorcan statistical terms - by a percentage. The Balearics education ministry stated "definitively" that 23.4% of the islands' 11,800 teachers went on strike last week, protesting - inevitably - against the Bauzá regime's educational policies and the introduction of the new national curriculum through LOMCE, the law on the quality of education.
The main thing that the green tide was objecting to, LOMCE-wise, was the test for nine-year-olds. Again, the education ministry was on hand to give some indication as to the "chaos" caused by this test. 6.84% of schools were reported as having "incidents" which prevented the test being taken. The association of primary school heads said that there was "chaos" on account of conflicting instructions that had emanated from the regional education ministry. It, the ministry, was unable for once to place a percentage on the level of its conflicting instruction.
But what was this test? Well, part of it required a spot of English. So, there was, for example, a multiple choice question. Fill in the missing word. "Where (blank) you going? I'm going to the park." What an opportunity was missed. When JR and Frankie Armengol went head to head for their debate on local TV, this should have been the question. How good is your trilingualism? José Ramón? "Erm, erm. Where do you going?" Wrong. Frankie? "I refuse to answer this on the grounds that I believe that TIL has produced chaos in the classrooms of the Balearics - at least 63.7% of them, that is." (Her percentage of course having been plucked entirely at random.)
JR might have been helped in getting the answer right had the presenter of the debate been one Miguel Angel Ariza, who caused a storm on his radio show for IB3 by announcing that listeners should vote for the PP. It was "unfortunate", he was to later admit, but insisted that it had been said as part of a "comedy" programme. Vota PP, the party of comedians. Perhaps. Journalist groups were not having his excuse, though. Impartiality, they screamed, those who had not been demonstrating their partiality in the lead-up to the election. A problem for Miguel, in trying to defend his humour, was that, as one example, on his blog of 19 December he wrote that "Bauzá is, has been and will be a good president", going on to praise a reduction in unemployment and greater wealth. Or maybe that had all been in the name of comedy as well.
As things turned out, the strike arranged for the green tide of educational activists was a bit of a damp squib, albeit that the dampness of a squib has to be measured - as always in Mallorcan statistical terms - by a percentage. The Balearics education ministry stated "definitively" that 23.4% of the islands' 11,800 teachers went on strike last week, protesting - inevitably - against the Bauzá regime's educational policies and the introduction of the new national curriculum through LOMCE, the law on the quality of education.
The main thing that the green tide was objecting to, LOMCE-wise, was the test for nine-year-olds. Again, the education ministry was on hand to give some indication as to the "chaos" caused by this test. 6.84% of schools were reported as having "incidents" which prevented the test being taken. The association of primary school heads said that there was "chaos" on account of conflicting instructions that had emanated from the regional education ministry. It, the ministry, was unable for once to place a percentage on the level of its conflicting instruction.
But what was this test? Well, part of it required a spot of English. So, there was, for example, a multiple choice question. Fill in the missing word. "Where (blank) you going? I'm going to the park." What an opportunity was missed. When JR and Frankie Armengol went head to head for their debate on local TV, this should have been the question. How good is your trilingualism? José Ramón? "Erm, erm. Where do you going?" Wrong. Frankie? "I refuse to answer this on the grounds that I believe that TIL has produced chaos in the classrooms of the Balearics - at least 63.7% of them, that is." (Her percentage of course having been plucked entirely at random.)
JR might have been helped in getting the answer right had the presenter of the debate been one Miguel Angel Ariza, who caused a storm on his radio show for IB3 by announcing that listeners should vote for the PP. It was "unfortunate", he was to later admit, but insisted that it had been said as part of a "comedy" programme. Vota PP, the party of comedians. Perhaps. Journalist groups were not having his excuse, though. Impartiality, they screamed, those who had not been demonstrating their partiality in the lead-up to the election. A problem for Miguel, in trying to defend his humour, was that, as one example, on his blog of 19 December he wrote that "Bauzá is, has been and will be a good president", going on to praise a reduction in unemployment and greater wealth. Or maybe that had all been in the name of comedy as well.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The The: Chaucer was not Mallorcan
In days of yore when obliged to do Chaucer for English Literature, my school's headmaster - who only ever left his study to do any teaching when the Father of English Lit was on the curriculum - would produce one of those old-fashioned, vinyl LP things, place it on the school's gramophone player and inflict Nevill Coghill on his group of uncomprehending sixth-formers. The headmaster was passionate about Chaucer, passionate about Coghill's interpretation and so therefore passionate about the language that was being used - Middle English.
Chaucer's language was not the finished article by any means. English underwent various iterations before something like a standard version was hit upon. "The Canterbury Tales" and "Troilus and Criseyde", which would crackle from the needle on Coghill's intonation, were arguably written through a collision of Kentish and Midlands dialects. Whatever the precise linguistic background to Chaucer's Middle English, his works contained what by then had become a standard form: the definite article "the".
Chaucer's great achievement was to give legitimacy to the native language in its then different varieties and to so challenge Latin (and French) as the dominant formal languages. His English was just one step along a route of influence, alteration and hybridisation which introduced its own conventions and abandoned others. One such was the distinction between the masculine, feminine and neuter articles which had existed in Old English. "The" became "the" and only "the" (or strictly speaking, "þe").
English nowadays reflects its historical, linguistic melting-pot in one particularly significant way. There is no language arbiter. There are no language diktats. English does not have academies, as the French and Spanish do, which establish rules.
English is hardly unique in having passed through phases of development brought about through migration and conquest, but while English, and other languages, evolved almost naturally, occasionally there was a linguistic shock, a moment in time when language (or dialect) changed almost totally. The conquest of Mallorca represented one such moment in time.
The natives on Mallorca didn't wake up on 1 January, 1230 and start speaking Catalan. The process of language assimilation took time, but as the island's population was probably no more than 20,000 (if that), the time that was required was uncommonly short. Once established, this new language took two paths. One was a regular Catalan which made its way into administration, documentation and religion. The other was the colloquial Catalan, one that represented some continuity with pre-conquest Vulgar Latin and Mozarabic, which had existed before Jaume I arrived on the scene. This colloquial Catalan became the Mallorquín dialect. It differs in certain respects, and one of the more notable ways in which it differs to regular Catalan is in the use of the definite article - the masculine and feminine of "the".
I recently drew attention to the row that had broken out because the Mallorcan broadcaster IB3 had started using the Mallorquín "the" in its news reports. Known as the "article salat", this colloquial use broke with tradition which deemed that regular, more formal Catalan was used. The row has since gone as far as the Balearic parliament and has intensified, as the Partido Popular-dominated parliament has approved the use of the "salat" at IB3. As a consequence, there are many, especially those in scholarly circles, who are now in a right old lather because of the parliament's decision. The argument has everything to do with the Partido Popular undermining Catalan. Again.
For we English-speaking descendants of Chaucer, the argument may well appear absurd. It will seem doubly so because of the absence of an English usage rule-making body. But where such bodies do exist, as in France and Spain, they are non-governmental and supposedly independent. For a government to make a direct ruling on language use is a different matter, and it is - despite the apparent absurdity - a pretty serious matter.
Inevitably and understandably, parliament's approval can be seen as having echoes of past official rulings on the Catalan language. But those were different to the current row. This is a local one, predicated as much if not more on political dogma as on linguistic common sense. The right-wing, characterised by elements within the PP and the anti-Catalan Circulo Balear (recently lampooned for its apparent role in determining government language policy), advances the cause of Mallorquín and the dialects of the other islands and attacks Catalan hegemony. It is as though Jaume I and the conquest never happened. But without that moment in time, that linguistic shock, Mallorquín would not now exist; or it would exist in a different form.
Yet, for all that there are political overtones, from experience of having spoken to Mallorcan people over the years, the majority might well agree with parliament's decision. They speak Mallorquín and not Catalan. How confusing. If only there had been a Mallorcan Chaucer. Though there was one - of sorts. Ramon Llull. And he used ...?
Chaucer's language was not the finished article by any means. English underwent various iterations before something like a standard version was hit upon. "The Canterbury Tales" and "Troilus and Criseyde", which would crackle from the needle on Coghill's intonation, were arguably written through a collision of Kentish and Midlands dialects. Whatever the precise linguistic background to Chaucer's Middle English, his works contained what by then had become a standard form: the definite article "the".
Chaucer's great achievement was to give legitimacy to the native language in its then different varieties and to so challenge Latin (and French) as the dominant formal languages. His English was just one step along a route of influence, alteration and hybridisation which introduced its own conventions and abandoned others. One such was the distinction between the masculine, feminine and neuter articles which had existed in Old English. "The" became "the" and only "the" (or strictly speaking, "þe").
English nowadays reflects its historical, linguistic melting-pot in one particularly significant way. There is no language arbiter. There are no language diktats. English does not have academies, as the French and Spanish do, which establish rules.
English is hardly unique in having passed through phases of development brought about through migration and conquest, but while English, and other languages, evolved almost naturally, occasionally there was a linguistic shock, a moment in time when language (or dialect) changed almost totally. The conquest of Mallorca represented one such moment in time.
The natives on Mallorca didn't wake up on 1 January, 1230 and start speaking Catalan. The process of language assimilation took time, but as the island's population was probably no more than 20,000 (if that), the time that was required was uncommonly short. Once established, this new language took two paths. One was a regular Catalan which made its way into administration, documentation and religion. The other was the colloquial Catalan, one that represented some continuity with pre-conquest Vulgar Latin and Mozarabic, which had existed before Jaume I arrived on the scene. This colloquial Catalan became the Mallorquín dialect. It differs in certain respects, and one of the more notable ways in which it differs to regular Catalan is in the use of the definite article - the masculine and feminine of "the".
I recently drew attention to the row that had broken out because the Mallorcan broadcaster IB3 had started using the Mallorquín "the" in its news reports. Known as the "article salat", this colloquial use broke with tradition which deemed that regular, more formal Catalan was used. The row has since gone as far as the Balearic parliament and has intensified, as the Partido Popular-dominated parliament has approved the use of the "salat" at IB3. As a consequence, there are many, especially those in scholarly circles, who are now in a right old lather because of the parliament's decision. The argument has everything to do with the Partido Popular undermining Catalan. Again.
For we English-speaking descendants of Chaucer, the argument may well appear absurd. It will seem doubly so because of the absence of an English usage rule-making body. But where such bodies do exist, as in France and Spain, they are non-governmental and supposedly independent. For a government to make a direct ruling on language use is a different matter, and it is - despite the apparent absurdity - a pretty serious matter.
Inevitably and understandably, parliament's approval can be seen as having echoes of past official rulings on the Catalan language. But those were different to the current row. This is a local one, predicated as much if not more on political dogma as on linguistic common sense. The right-wing, characterised by elements within the PP and the anti-Catalan Circulo Balear (recently lampooned for its apparent role in determining government language policy), advances the cause of Mallorquín and the dialects of the other islands and attacks Catalan hegemony. It is as though Jaume I and the conquest never happened. But without that moment in time, that linguistic shock, Mallorquín would not now exist; or it would exist in a different form.
Yet, for all that there are political overtones, from experience of having spoken to Mallorcan people over the years, the majority might well agree with parliament's decision. They speak Mallorquín and not Catalan. How confusing. If only there had been a Mallorcan Chaucer. Though there was one - of sorts. Ramon Llull. And he used ...?
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Mallorca's Salad (Sic) Days
The word "sic" is directly lifted from Latin. Its literal meaning is "thus". It has come to be used in the written form as a means of highlighting an error, such as a misspelling, a malapropism or simply wrong usage. It is commonly used to poke fun, which is appropriate, as there is so much fun that one can have with Latin and linguistic arguments in Mallorca.
These arguments are ones with which we are all too familiar. They centre on Catalan or not Catalan and, for the linguistically uninitiated or couldn't-care-lesses (sic), they are frequently arcane to the point of being beyond comprehension or stupid to the point of long having dispensed with common sense or rationality.
Of course, one man's language is his to defend, as indeed is an alternative language or dialect, so one can't and shouldn't be too dismissive of another man's language argument. However, there are occasions when intrusion into someone else's argument is required, if only to highlight what might appear to be the pettiness of the debate.
While the polemic in Mallorca is one which typically embraces the linguistic parallel universes of Catalan and Castellano, there is an idiomatic black hole which exists in the Catalan universe, inside which resides mini-universes that have diverged from Vulgar Latin roots. This is a divergence, the peculiarity of which is made even more peculiar by the fact that it centres on what in original Latin was that language's set of intensive pronouns. In Latin there is no such thing as a definite or indefinite article - "the" or "a". In Catalan there most definitely is. Or rather, there most definitely are.
Ipse, ipsa, ipsum. You can blame all of them because they are at the heart of the row that has found its way into the Balearic parliament. In the Mallorquín dialect (and in a few other Catalan dialects), these pronouns led to a localised Vulgarisation of the article. It is why Mallorquín uses "es" and "sa" instead of the normal Catalan "el" and "la" (the same as Castellano therefore).
This Mallorquín branch line of definite article usage is known as the "article salat". In Castellano "salat" becomes "salado". The salad days aren't so much salad days of innocence as salad days of the linguistic argument having its heyday. They're arguing over the bloody definite article.
This has all arisen because the Mallorcan broadcaster IB3 has started to use "es" and "sa" in its news reports instead of "el" and "la". Why should this inspire an argument? Believe it or not, and you will believe it, it all has to do with the Partido Popular regional government's antagonism towards Catalan. There has been an outcry. The accusation is that the government is interfering with the editorial independence of IB3 (and this is not the first time that it has been accused of doing so) by pressing its anti-Catalan agenda and its pro-Balearic dialects agenda as a complement to Castellano.
Both forms of the article are commonly used in Mallorca, but there is a general distinction made in terms of literary/more formal usage and everyday usage. The Catalan article is used for the former. Hence, it might be deemed appropriate for news reports. This is how opponents of the introduction of the "salat" see things. They also see the use of the "salat" as a deliberate ploy to undermine Catalan.
The government insists that the "salat" usage reflects colloquial speech and that its use by IB3 "dignifies" linguistic peculiarities. But the government's vice-president, Antonio Gómez, who, it just so happens, was for a time the director-general of IB3, isn't saying who made the decision to adopt it. At the Universitat de les Illes Balears, where linguistic standards tend to be decided, the view is that the "salat" damages the standard use of Catalan and that it introduces conflict where none had previously existed. This, unfortunately, sums up how the government has conducted its language policy. It has sought fights, and its increasing unpopularity reflects what have been, for the most part, unnecessary fights.
These arguments are ones with which we are all too familiar. They centre on Catalan or not Catalan and, for the linguistically uninitiated or couldn't-care-lesses (sic), they are frequently arcane to the point of being beyond comprehension or stupid to the point of long having dispensed with common sense or rationality.
Of course, one man's language is his to defend, as indeed is an alternative language or dialect, so one can't and shouldn't be too dismissive of another man's language argument. However, there are occasions when intrusion into someone else's argument is required, if only to highlight what might appear to be the pettiness of the debate.
While the polemic in Mallorca is one which typically embraces the linguistic parallel universes of Catalan and Castellano, there is an idiomatic black hole which exists in the Catalan universe, inside which resides mini-universes that have diverged from Vulgar Latin roots. This is a divergence, the peculiarity of which is made even more peculiar by the fact that it centres on what in original Latin was that language's set of intensive pronouns. In Latin there is no such thing as a definite or indefinite article - "the" or "a". In Catalan there most definitely is. Or rather, there most definitely are.
Ipse, ipsa, ipsum. You can blame all of them because they are at the heart of the row that has found its way into the Balearic parliament. In the Mallorquín dialect (and in a few other Catalan dialects), these pronouns led to a localised Vulgarisation of the article. It is why Mallorquín uses "es" and "sa" instead of the normal Catalan "el" and "la" (the same as Castellano therefore).
This Mallorquín branch line of definite article usage is known as the "article salat". In Castellano "salat" becomes "salado". The salad days aren't so much salad days of innocence as salad days of the linguistic argument having its heyday. They're arguing over the bloody definite article.
This has all arisen because the Mallorcan broadcaster IB3 has started to use "es" and "sa" in its news reports instead of "el" and "la". Why should this inspire an argument? Believe it or not, and you will believe it, it all has to do with the Partido Popular regional government's antagonism towards Catalan. There has been an outcry. The accusation is that the government is interfering with the editorial independence of IB3 (and this is not the first time that it has been accused of doing so) by pressing its anti-Catalan agenda and its pro-Balearic dialects agenda as a complement to Castellano.
Both forms of the article are commonly used in Mallorca, but there is a general distinction made in terms of literary/more formal usage and everyday usage. The Catalan article is used for the former. Hence, it might be deemed appropriate for news reports. This is how opponents of the introduction of the "salat" see things. They also see the use of the "salat" as a deliberate ploy to undermine Catalan.
The government insists that the "salat" usage reflects colloquial speech and that its use by IB3 "dignifies" linguistic peculiarities. But the government's vice-president, Antonio Gómez, who, it just so happens, was for a time the director-general of IB3, isn't saying who made the decision to adopt it. At the Universitat de les Illes Balears, where linguistic standards tend to be decided, the view is that the "salat" damages the standard use of Catalan and that it introduces conflict where none had previously existed. This, unfortunately, sums up how the government has conducted its language policy. It has sought fights, and its increasing unpopularity reflects what have been, for the most part, unnecessary fights.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Time To Turn Off The TV?: IB3
In the Balearics, there were protests two years ago when the decision was taken to close TV Mallorca. There were similar objections to those now being made in Valencia. Among them were claims that Mallorca's audiovisual industry would be hit hard and that some 2,000 employees could find themselves at risk of losing their jobs. The final transmission was in December 2011 and a year later a further decision by the Council of Mallorca, which had been the body that had closed TV Mallorca, was greeted as representing a potentially fatal blow to the local AV industry; this was the decision to close the Mallorca Film Commission.
The AV industry also criticised cuts to budgets at IB3, the other Mallorca government-funded broadcaster. When these cuts were added to the closure of TV Mallorca and of the film commission, they together amounted to a major threat to an industry which, in no small part, has been at the forefront of a drive towards a stronger technology-based economy on the island.
While lack of funding has been used as the justification for closure, there has also been a heavy dose of politics. TV Mallorca, a company created by the then Unió Mallorquina-led Council of Mallorca, received backing from organisations such as GOB, the environmental group, and the OCB, the promoters of Catalan culture, when the by now Partido Popular-led Council took its decision to close the station. IB3, in the meantime, has become a broadcaster firmly under the control of the PP. The likes of GOB, so it has been alleged, are all but barred, while there was criticism of IB3's lack of coverage of the massive demonstration against the regional government's trilingual teaching policy.
Against a background of an inference that IB3 is being used as a government mouthpiece, there now comes a revelation as to quite how much IB3 has been costing. Since it was launched by the Jaume Matas PP government in 2005, it is said to have cost 650 million euros. Though its budget has been cut over the past four years, in 2012 it still received funding of almost 45 million euros (roughly speaking, public funds amount to 95% of its operating revenue). Based on the cost per head of population, IB3 is the second most expensive regional broadcaster in Spain.
The 2012 budget did, however, have to be supplemented. Had it not been, IB3 might have been forced to shut down. And it would appear that ever since its launch, the initial annual budgets have always been supplemented, occasionally in an astronomical fashion. Meantime, the total of 650 million euros has contributed to sustaining a broadcaster which attracts slightly less than 6% of audience share. By comparison, for example, TV3 in Catalonia has a 13.6% audience share, one pulled from a vastly greater population. Valencia's Channel 9 (RTVV) has a lower share, but it also has a larger population to draw on.
Local broadcasting should, in theory, be a "good thing". It is a very good thing if the funds it receives from government and taxpayers then translate into new businesses, more jobs and technological innovation. It is also a very good thing if it advances local culture and is a force for social good. But it is not a very good thing if it is viewed by comparatively small audiences, costs a fortune and becomes a political tool. If IB3 were to close tomorrow, few people, other than those whose jobs depend on it, would do much weeping.
IB3 has also been dogged with suspicions. Those to do with some of that funding. Little more than three years into its existence, the police had started to snoop around, asking questions about payments for studio sets which were some 20% higher than tenders from companies which had missed out.
The regional government, aware of the protests in Valencia, has said that it has no intention of following Valencia's lead in closing IB3. There again, if it is serving a useful purpose for the government, then why would it? And why would it privatise IB3, as has been suggested, if privatisation meant broadcaster independence? But then who would want to buy it? 6% audience share? No thanks.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
The Manipulation Game: Spanish broadcasting
In 1968, Tony Benn launched an attack on the BBC and gave us a memorable quote. "Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcaster." Benn went on to call for the establishment of "representative broadcasting" instead of that controlled by the "constitutional monarchs" at the BBC.
What Benn was referring to has long been and in truth always has been behind the media's conduct, namely the wielding of influence over the output. Arguably, there is no such thing as true freedom of the press (or wider media) and never can be. To offer another quote, that by A.J.Liebling, an American journalist who died 50 years ago: "freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one". Even then, the freedom is subject to influence.
Interference, ideology, bias all collide in massaging the message, with influence bordering on being synonymous with interference and determining the ideology or bias. Yet, is this influence as strong as it once was? When Tony Benn was making his speech, communications media were limited. The internet has changed the rules of the game and has made the more overt use of influence in manipulating the messages of the conventional media subject to far greater scrutiny and potential ridicule.
Theoretically, the democratisation of information that has been enabled by the internet exposes the ways in which influence is brought to bear. This hasn't stopped the peddling of influence or the degree of interference, but because of the existence of a present-day media-savvy, cyber-connected public and bloggerati, this influence is shown up for what it is, to the extent that one wonders whether some of those who seek to wield influence really understand what world they are living in.
In Spain, there are some troubling examples of seeking to influence and of outright interference. They are so obvious that one is left to conclude that certain politicians are either ignorant of the changed rules or are perfectly well aware of them but choose to thumb their noses at them in acts of craven disregard.
The interference at the national broadcaster, RTVE, has already been chronicled. It has manifested itself in the sidelining of certain journalists and in the downgrading of importance attached to specific news items; these journalists and news items not being to the liking of the government. Last weekend, the Partido Popular government attempted to interfere with what was entitled "The Great Debate" on Telecinco. The debate was to be about the scandal that has erupted regarding the party's former treasurer. During the programme's broadcast, a text message was sent by the PP which made it clear that it was threatening to sue.
In effect, the party was looking to stifle the great debate, yet seemingly nothing that Telecinco raised wasn't already in the public domain. Crucially though, the scandal is massively important; it required debating, not neutering.
Once upon a time and under a former regime, such a debate couldn't have occurred and the public wouldn't have been aware of any alleged or actual corruption. The PP seems to be living in the past not just because it lumbered in with its heavy, censorious boots but also because it neglected the scrutinising other world of the media on the internet. It might want to take on the conventional media, but it only succeeds in web-viralising its actions.
If the PP nationally is engaged in overt attempts to influence or interfere, its regional wing in the Balearics is acting in an even more overt fashion. President Bauzá, likened by opposition parties to Berlusconi because of his rewriting of the law on political transparency, is taking the comparison further by acting like Berlusconi in controlling a television station. Or so it is being alleged. The charge has been made that the public IB3 channel is being manipulated by the director of Bauzá's cabinet, Javier Fons.
It has been suggested that certain organisations are in effect banned from IB3, and Fons has been vetoing the appearance of some individuals. He had previously prohibited one particular journalist from being involved in an interview. He is also said to have interfered with an interview with the president of the Fundación Kovacs, a research organisation that has clinics for the treatment of neck and back complaints. A grant of a million euros was one topic for the interview. President Bauzá is on the foundation's board.
Broadcasting may indeed be too important to be left to broadcasters. Faults they may have, influence they may be unable or unwilling to reject, but broadcasting is too important to be left to politicians in whose hands it becomes undemocratic. The PP would do well to understand this.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
What Benn was referring to has long been and in truth always has been behind the media's conduct, namely the wielding of influence over the output. Arguably, there is no such thing as true freedom of the press (or wider media) and never can be. To offer another quote, that by A.J.Liebling, an American journalist who died 50 years ago: "freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one". Even then, the freedom is subject to influence.
Interference, ideology, bias all collide in massaging the message, with influence bordering on being synonymous with interference and determining the ideology or bias. Yet, is this influence as strong as it once was? When Tony Benn was making his speech, communications media were limited. The internet has changed the rules of the game and has made the more overt use of influence in manipulating the messages of the conventional media subject to far greater scrutiny and potential ridicule.
Theoretically, the democratisation of information that has been enabled by the internet exposes the ways in which influence is brought to bear. This hasn't stopped the peddling of influence or the degree of interference, but because of the existence of a present-day media-savvy, cyber-connected public and bloggerati, this influence is shown up for what it is, to the extent that one wonders whether some of those who seek to wield influence really understand what world they are living in.
In Spain, there are some troubling examples of seeking to influence and of outright interference. They are so obvious that one is left to conclude that certain politicians are either ignorant of the changed rules or are perfectly well aware of them but choose to thumb their noses at them in acts of craven disregard.
The interference at the national broadcaster, RTVE, has already been chronicled. It has manifested itself in the sidelining of certain journalists and in the downgrading of importance attached to specific news items; these journalists and news items not being to the liking of the government. Last weekend, the Partido Popular government attempted to interfere with what was entitled "The Great Debate" on Telecinco. The debate was to be about the scandal that has erupted regarding the party's former treasurer. During the programme's broadcast, a text message was sent by the PP which made it clear that it was threatening to sue.
In effect, the party was looking to stifle the great debate, yet seemingly nothing that Telecinco raised wasn't already in the public domain. Crucially though, the scandal is massively important; it required debating, not neutering.
Once upon a time and under a former regime, such a debate couldn't have occurred and the public wouldn't have been aware of any alleged or actual corruption. The PP seems to be living in the past not just because it lumbered in with its heavy, censorious boots but also because it neglected the scrutinising other world of the media on the internet. It might want to take on the conventional media, but it only succeeds in web-viralising its actions.
If the PP nationally is engaged in overt attempts to influence or interfere, its regional wing in the Balearics is acting in an even more overt fashion. President Bauzá, likened by opposition parties to Berlusconi because of his rewriting of the law on political transparency, is taking the comparison further by acting like Berlusconi in controlling a television station. Or so it is being alleged. The charge has been made that the public IB3 channel is being manipulated by the director of Bauzá's cabinet, Javier Fons.
It has been suggested that certain organisations are in effect banned from IB3, and Fons has been vetoing the appearance of some individuals. He had previously prohibited one particular journalist from being involved in an interview. He is also said to have interfered with an interview with the president of the Fundación Kovacs, a research organisation that has clinics for the treatment of neck and back complaints. A grant of a million euros was one topic for the interview. President Bauzá is on the foundation's board.
Broadcasting may indeed be too important to be left to broadcasters. Faults they may have, influence they may be unable or unwilling to reject, but broadcasting is too important to be left to politicians in whose hands it becomes undemocratic. The PP would do well to understand this.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Radio Ga Ga: Mallorcan radio
Something that popped up in yesterday's piece was the Muro councillor who has responsibility for radio and television. It came as news to me because I wasn't aware that there was either a local radio or television station in Muro. As far as the television is concerned, there is so little reference to it that you wonder which television the councillor is responsible for: the town hall's plasma screen perhaps? As for radio, there is a Muro radio station, though I would have qualified as one of the 25% of the local population who was unaware of it when a survey was conducted in 2005.
They don't seem to have repeated the survey exercise. Maybe because the results six years ago were not exactly a ringing endorsement of the station's existence. Based on interview research with 554 people, the survey discovered that a whopping 6% of the local population said that they listened to the station every day. 75% said that they never listened to it. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the research was the average length of time the small number of listeners actually spent listening. All of eight minutes per day.
Maybe its listening figures are a whole lot better now, or maybe they aren't. If not, then what is the point of the station?
The station is, obviously enough, one means of local communication and can be a forum for issues specific to the community, but then how many burning topics does a small town like Muro generate? Another finding from the survey suggested that news wasn't a priority for listening in. 50% said they tuned in to hear music. And you can hear music on any number of other radio stations.
Having different forms of local media is laudable enough, but can they be justified either in terms of listening figures or cost? Are they more a case of me-too media rather than meeting a genuine need?
Alcúdia also has a radio station. It celebrated its twentieth anniversary last week. Unlike Muro, Alcúdia Radio does have a strong presence. Alcúdia is almost three times the size of Muro, so you might hope that it would do, and it makes its presence felt. For example, each year during the Sant Pere fiestas there is an Alcúdia Radio procession. The station is on hand to broadcast from the fiestas and the autumn fair. It is certainly listened to, as you can often hear it on in shops and hear the ads.
Ah yes, the ads. There must be a small studio somewhere with a couple of voiceover artists who try their best to vary their voices over whatever cheesy muzak they dredge out of the archives. It must become extremely difficult to know how to sound enthusiastic when you're spouting the same "especialista en carne" line for the thousandth time.
Though Alcúdia Radio has become a fixture, it was, in its early days, a thing of some controversy. It had been going only a short time when an issue of the old local magazine "Badia d'Alcúdia" reported: "The municipal radio is losing listeners and will lose more ... it is not a municipal station but a partisan radio station which serves only a part of the population." It was politically biased, in other words.
And it is political bias that has continued to dog local media. It isn't unusual for the media to adopt a particular political stance, but the bias has manifested itself in a different way; radio and television have been controlled by different parties.
In 2006 Ràdio i Televisió de Mallorca, TV Mallorca as it is commonly known, was created by a Council of Mallorca driven by the Unió Mallorquina. It was a rival to the IB3 radio and television service, at that time "managed" by the Partido Popular. In addition to charges of political bias and interference, these two broadcasters have failed spectacularly to make money and have failed to create wide audiences. President Bauzá suggested before the elections that he would close down TV Mallorca and privatise IB3.
Where was the sense in having two broadcasters? Very little. Arguably, neither was necessary. Which brings you back to the likes of Muro, to its radio and elusive TV and to need. Public broadcasting isn't solely about profitability, but if it doesn't address a genuine need then there is no point to it. There are plenty of alternative broadcasters and alternative forms of communication. But without the radio and TV, what would a poor councillor do?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
They don't seem to have repeated the survey exercise. Maybe because the results six years ago were not exactly a ringing endorsement of the station's existence. Based on interview research with 554 people, the survey discovered that a whopping 6% of the local population said that they listened to the station every day. 75% said that they never listened to it. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the research was the average length of time the small number of listeners actually spent listening. All of eight minutes per day.
Maybe its listening figures are a whole lot better now, or maybe they aren't. If not, then what is the point of the station?
The station is, obviously enough, one means of local communication and can be a forum for issues specific to the community, but then how many burning topics does a small town like Muro generate? Another finding from the survey suggested that news wasn't a priority for listening in. 50% said they tuned in to hear music. And you can hear music on any number of other radio stations.
Having different forms of local media is laudable enough, but can they be justified either in terms of listening figures or cost? Are they more a case of me-too media rather than meeting a genuine need?
Alcúdia also has a radio station. It celebrated its twentieth anniversary last week. Unlike Muro, Alcúdia Radio does have a strong presence. Alcúdia is almost three times the size of Muro, so you might hope that it would do, and it makes its presence felt. For example, each year during the Sant Pere fiestas there is an Alcúdia Radio procession. The station is on hand to broadcast from the fiestas and the autumn fair. It is certainly listened to, as you can often hear it on in shops and hear the ads.
Ah yes, the ads. There must be a small studio somewhere with a couple of voiceover artists who try their best to vary their voices over whatever cheesy muzak they dredge out of the archives. It must become extremely difficult to know how to sound enthusiastic when you're spouting the same "especialista en carne" line for the thousandth time.
Though Alcúdia Radio has become a fixture, it was, in its early days, a thing of some controversy. It had been going only a short time when an issue of the old local magazine "Badia d'Alcúdia" reported: "The municipal radio is losing listeners and will lose more ... it is not a municipal station but a partisan radio station which serves only a part of the population." It was politically biased, in other words.
And it is political bias that has continued to dog local media. It isn't unusual for the media to adopt a particular political stance, but the bias has manifested itself in a different way; radio and television have been controlled by different parties.
In 2006 Ràdio i Televisió de Mallorca, TV Mallorca as it is commonly known, was created by a Council of Mallorca driven by the Unió Mallorquina. It was a rival to the IB3 radio and television service, at that time "managed" by the Partido Popular. In addition to charges of political bias and interference, these two broadcasters have failed spectacularly to make money and have failed to create wide audiences. President Bauzá suggested before the elections that he would close down TV Mallorca and privatise IB3.
Where was the sense in having two broadcasters? Very little. Arguably, neither was necessary. Which brings you back to the likes of Muro, to its radio and elusive TV and to need. Public broadcasting isn't solely about profitability, but if it doesn't address a genuine need then there is no point to it. There are plenty of alternative broadcasters and alternative forms of communication. But without the radio and TV, what would a poor councillor do?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Suspicious Minds
Is there any aspect of public life that is not under suspicion? To add to the various politicians hauled up in front of the local beak and under investigation, we now have a colonel from the Guardia Civil in the dock and, to cap it all, the police are now taking an interest in the affairs of the local television station - IB3.
IB3 started in 2005. It is basically funded with public money, and it has received its fair share of criticism, not least because of its cost. And costs might now be a thing of possible corrupt practice. Here we go again, and what do you know, there is another connection with the islands' last administration of the Partido Popular, as contracts awarded during its time are the subject of the investigation. According to "The Diario", this all has to do with payments made for studio sets, the value of which were some twenty per cent higher than tenders from companies other than that which was awarded the contracts, while the sets themselves were, allegedly, of low quality. Maybe it was just a poor decision by management, and it would be wrong to pre-judge, but the case is symptomatic of what has all the appearances of a society out of control, or of one that was maybe never under control. And that is part of the problem. So much here is a nudge and a wink, as it has long been. One really doesn't know who can be trusted. The police have got their hands full with various investigations, and it doesn't help when some of their ranks occasionally get caught with their fingers in the till.
IB3 may not be the channel of choice for most expats, but one, at least, watches the station. There was a letter to the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" a few days ago which expressed disbelief at the broadcasting of an expensive party for champagne-swilling usual local suspects of politicos and business figures to celebrate a change to the logo. The writer was not wrong to do so. How can such self-congratulatory nonsense be sanctioned when it is public money that is paying for it and at a time of economic hardship? It beggars belief. And it beggars even more belief when one realises that the contractor that provides news services is to cut the number of employees by around a half as of the beginning of January.
Confusion reigns as to whether Freddy Shepherd is going to bid for Real Mallorca or not, but there is a huge doubt hanging over any prospective deal, and that is the huge debt. It amounts to some 51 million euros when outstanding payments to the club are factored in. This is a club not only edging towards relegation but also edging towards oblivion. Rumours have it that players are not being paid and that transfer payment schedules are not being adhered to. Even if Shepherd, or anyone else, were to pay only a nominal amount, the clearance of the debts would, in all likelihood, be a step too far, especially as the team is sinking fast. Maybe Paul Davidson got wind of the full scale of the problem and this was what made him back off.
It's not as though new owners don't come along to pay off debts. Ashley did so at Newcastle. Ken Bates bought Chelsea for a quid, removed the debt and then saddled the club with more. Abramovic didn't exactly break the bank to buy Bates out, but he had deep pockets for clearing debts of the Bates era and for further investment, and times were different. Both English clubs, moreover, were and are more of a proposition than Mallorca in terms of potential success and return.
If the worse came to the worse and no buyer were to be found and the club actually went out of business, it would be a shame, but just how much of a shame? This is a team that cannot fill its 25,000 seater stadium. It may have ardent fans, but it does not appear to hold a place that is dear to most Mallorcans, many of whom support mainland teams. I'm afraid that I cannot concur with a comment in The Bulletin that the team being in La Liga "keeps the name of Mallorca on the lips of people all over the world". Mallorca keeps the name of Mallorca on people's lips, not its largely anonymous (in global terms) football club. There are, after all, plenty of people who know about Tenerife, and its team doesn't play in the top division.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Velvet Underground (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVIklyZNSMY). Today's title - Elvis of course, Gareth bloody Gates and Will Young, but the one from the '80s?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
IB3 started in 2005. It is basically funded with public money, and it has received its fair share of criticism, not least because of its cost. And costs might now be a thing of possible corrupt practice. Here we go again, and what do you know, there is another connection with the islands' last administration of the Partido Popular, as contracts awarded during its time are the subject of the investigation. According to "The Diario", this all has to do with payments made for studio sets, the value of which were some twenty per cent higher than tenders from companies other than that which was awarded the contracts, while the sets themselves were, allegedly, of low quality. Maybe it was just a poor decision by management, and it would be wrong to pre-judge, but the case is symptomatic of what has all the appearances of a society out of control, or of one that was maybe never under control. And that is part of the problem. So much here is a nudge and a wink, as it has long been. One really doesn't know who can be trusted. The police have got their hands full with various investigations, and it doesn't help when some of their ranks occasionally get caught with their fingers in the till.
IB3 may not be the channel of choice for most expats, but one, at least, watches the station. There was a letter to the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" a few days ago which expressed disbelief at the broadcasting of an expensive party for champagne-swilling usual local suspects of politicos and business figures to celebrate a change to the logo. The writer was not wrong to do so. How can such self-congratulatory nonsense be sanctioned when it is public money that is paying for it and at a time of economic hardship? It beggars belief. And it beggars even more belief when one realises that the contractor that provides news services is to cut the number of employees by around a half as of the beginning of January.
Confusion reigns as to whether Freddy Shepherd is going to bid for Real Mallorca or not, but there is a huge doubt hanging over any prospective deal, and that is the huge debt. It amounts to some 51 million euros when outstanding payments to the club are factored in. This is a club not only edging towards relegation but also edging towards oblivion. Rumours have it that players are not being paid and that transfer payment schedules are not being adhered to. Even if Shepherd, or anyone else, were to pay only a nominal amount, the clearance of the debts would, in all likelihood, be a step too far, especially as the team is sinking fast. Maybe Paul Davidson got wind of the full scale of the problem and this was what made him back off.
It's not as though new owners don't come along to pay off debts. Ashley did so at Newcastle. Ken Bates bought Chelsea for a quid, removed the debt and then saddled the club with more. Abramovic didn't exactly break the bank to buy Bates out, but he had deep pockets for clearing debts of the Bates era and for further investment, and times were different. Both English clubs, moreover, were and are more of a proposition than Mallorca in terms of potential success and return.
If the worse came to the worse and no buyer were to be found and the club actually went out of business, it would be a shame, but just how much of a shame? This is a team that cannot fill its 25,000 seater stadium. It may have ardent fans, but it does not appear to hold a place that is dear to most Mallorcans, many of whom support mainland teams. I'm afraid that I cannot concur with a comment in The Bulletin that the team being in La Liga "keeps the name of Mallorca on the lips of people all over the world". Mallorca keeps the name of Mallorca on people's lips, not its largely anonymous (in global terms) football club. There are, after all, plenty of people who know about Tenerife, and its team doesn't play in the top division.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Velvet Underground (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVIklyZNSMY). Today's title - Elvis of course, Gareth bloody Gates and Will Young, but the one from the '80s?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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