• Alleges reporters ‘professionally obliged’ to write negative stories on Podemos
• Comments roundly condemned by news media, professional associations
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias sparked a walkout by reporters and a backlash in the Spanish press after singling out a daily newspaper reporter by name and alleging that he wrote lies about Podemos, then generally denigrating the work of news reporters during the anti-austerity party leader’s participation in the presentation of a book about populism in Spain at Madrid’s Universidad Complutense.
Political beat reporters from a number of Spanish news outlets stood up and walked out on Iglesias after he publicly singled out El Mundo political reporter Alvaro Carvajal in front of a clearly pro-Podemos audience and went on to mock the news media in general and allege that Carvajal and other journalists who cover Podemos are “professionally obliged” to bend the truth and write negative stories about the party and its leaders if they want to “get ahead” in their careers.
Iglesias’ comments and the press walkout were covered in most major daily newspapers and broadcast media on Friday and the fact that he singled out an individual journalist for public criticism and humiliation were criticized by Spain’s main associations of professional journalists, including the Asociación de la Prensa de Madrid, Asociación de Periodistas Parlamentarios (APP), Federación de Asociaciones de la Prensa Española (FAPE) and the Federación de Sindicatos de Periodistas (FeSP).
► Read More in Spanish at El País, Libertad Digital, and El Mundo …
► Read More in English at The Spain Report …
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