A NEW BILL which regulates TV and radio stations in Spain has been passed by Congress.
The Ley General de la Comunicación Audiovisual aims to sweep away a raft of old legislation which regulates different sections of the TV and radio industry, and replace it with a modern and efficient bill.
The vote was carried late last week in Congress with the votes of the PSOE, CiU and the Canary Coalition.
The PP party abstained from the vote, and the PNV and IU voted against the bill.
This marks the penultimate phase before the bill is signed into law. The bill has now been sent to the Senate for a final vote, but unless it is defeated in the Senate it is not likely to suffer any major modifications before being signed into law.
A major point in the new bill is the modification of the broadcasting rights of publically owned regional TV channels, which can now legally broadcast into neighbouring regions, as long as the neighbours share common cultural ground and permission is obtained from the region involved.
This was a major stickling point in the law, and both Catalunya and the Valencian Region have expressed their satisfaction that their regional channels can now broadcast to a greater audience.
Fewer advert breaks
With respect to advertising breaks, the law stipulates that broadcasters may eventually broadcast a total of 19 minutes per hour, shared between conventional ads (12 minutes), self promotional (five minutes) and telepromotions (two minutes).
This item has been modified relative to the initial text of the government, which envisaged the possibility of issuing up to 12 minutes of telepromotions, which would have been 29 minutes of advertising.
Protecting children
The text also bans “negative body” ads at times when children are likely to be watching.
"Adverts which promote the cult of the body and the rejection of their self-image” must not be broadcast to children.
Specifically, the text refers to "weight loss products, surgery or beauty treatments that appeal to social rejection by the physical condition or success due to factors such as weight or aesthetics”.
Also, the bill provides that the contents that can be "detrimental to the physical, mental or moral development of minors may only be broadcast between 22.00 and 6.00 am and shall always be preceded by a warning sound and vision," with the latter present throughout the program.
Closure of pirate radio stations
Another aim of the new law is to close pirate radio stations in Spain.
This was a major point added to the bill by the Canary Coalition party.
To this end, the draft stipulates the implementation of the State Agency for Radio (Agencia Estatal de Radiocomunicaciones) an agency previously mooted in an earlier law but which was never eventually formed, to be in charge of making a map of the radio stations in Spain.
However, the new agency will now not be in charge of closing these stations.
Instead, the central government and autonomous regions will be responsible for closing those that have no license, under the direction of the agency.
The parliamentary groups estimate that in Spain there are about 3,000 pirate radio stations.
Political reactions
The PP  Deputy Miguel Angel Cortes has said his group does not feel politically bound to this law and added that "only a judge and not an administrative body must be able to close an audiovisual medium”.
Cortes asked the PSOE to ensure that Internet users, service providers of information society and telecommunications operators are excluded from the scope of this law and, therefore, their inspection.
He also asked for a government guarantee that it would not interfere with the freedom of "blogs, social networks, internet pages and the exchange of audiovisual content between users to enable them to operate without fear of punishment [of up to one million euros] or the closure of their site" .
The representative of Izquierda Unida, Gaspar Llamazares, said that the law “consolidates a market oligopoly, favoring private television channels and marginalizing public broadcasting”.
The PNV, the Basque nationalist party, has also asked for an amendment ensuring respect for “all languages of the State”.
And Joan Ridao (ERC) has denounced the "very high level of government subservience to some media groups” and has accused the government of dismantling  the public audiovisual sector, a move they claim will eventually end up destroying the national broadcaster RTVE.
For her part, the Canarian Coalition representative Ana Oramas, pointed out unresolved questions about the protection of children in the Canary Islands - she pointed out that due to time differences, they are protected only until 21:00 hours, as the Canary Islands are one hour behind the mainland.

Key points
►Maximum of 19 minutes of ads per hour of programme
►Children to be protected from “cult of the body” advertising
►Adult content to be broadcast only between 22.00 and 6.00
►New agency to map all pirate radio stations for closure
►Regional TV stations can now broadcast outside of their region
►6% of the income of public broadcasters can now be spent developing popular TV series as well as film.

AN ARMED GANG accused of carrying out 30 violent robberies in the last few months have been arrested.
A joint operation, called “Operation Beduino-Indalo” between the National Police and the Guardia Civil ended with the arrests of 17 people across the province.
The gang, described as highly organised, was specialised in the holdup of commercial premises across the Poniente, including car dealerships, petrol stations and wholesalers.
A core of the team would carry out the robbery, whilst other members of the team would watch the area around the site to warn of incoming police.
The group became active in December of last year, and both police forces quickly realised they were dealing with different robberies by the same group.
“The gang always had the same modus operandi” said Guardia spokesman López.
“They would identify the weak points in security at establishments. Then two or three of them, wearing masks and carrying guns, would burst into the establishment to demand cash.”
“Other members of the gang would watch nearby roads to warn if police were coming”.
“We believe this group was very busy, and on one occasion they broke into three establishments on the same day”.
The gang would steal powerful cars to ensure a quick getaway, abandoning them after using them.
However, police mounted a huge surveillance operation which eventually allowed them to identify the main robbers.
Although the gang is accused of stealing over 100,000 euros in cash, only 650 euros was found during the searches, although six powerful cars and weapons were seized.
The 17 people, mainly Eastern European, have been remanded until trial.

AN ALMERIA MAYORESS accused of land planning corruption yesterday hit back at her critics.
Leonor Membrive (PSOE) is mayoress of the town of Gérgal, in the west of the province close to the Sierra de los Filabres mountain range. Earlier this week, an opposition coalition accused her of using land planning legislation to change the designation of her own land from rural to urban, thereby greatly increasing its value.
Sra Membrive “roundly denied” the opposition coalition’s claims that she owns 50% of the land affected by the changes in designation, saying that only “part of her property was affected”. She also said plans for the town’s urban expansion followed “perfectly normal and logical” guidelines. Sra Membrive said the original site proposed for the town’s expansion was located between a mountain and a dry riverbed which led the team drawing up the land plans to opt for a different site, which includes a plot of land which has belonged to Sra Membrive for 31 years.
She said: “The opposition should have made objections when the land plans were being drawn up rather than create all this uncertainty. All they are really doing is causing problems for the town’s development. If the land plan doesn’t go through, it is the town itself that will suffer.”
According to the opposition coalition, formed by the right-wing PP, the left-wing IU and independent party, GIAL, the vote to change the land planning designation took place last February 10 and was passed by five votes to four. However, the opposition coalition is now moving to have the vote declared void as they say Sra Membrive should not have been allowed to vote given the situation.
 

RESIDENTS OF EL EJIDO have been making known their displeasure over the mosquito problem in the area.
The problem comes from the Puntas Entinas natural park, next to the Almerimar port, which is full of water after the rains and an ideal breeding place for mosquitos.
Just walking along the paseo can be complicated because of the “clouds” of mosquitoes, according to complaints.
Just a few days ago technicians studying the problem held meetings with the El Ejido and Roquetas townhall, a meeting at which the delegate for the environment Clemente Garcia was not present.
However, despite promises made at the meeting, local councillors are not optimistic the problem will be efficiently tackled.
One man who doubts the Junta will take action is none other than the councilor of Agriculture and Environment of the City of El Ejido, Jorge Viseras.
Sr Visieras has criticised the “indifferent” attitude of the Junta towards the problem, and says that his department still has not received any firm promise of action from the regional government, who is in charge of fumigating in the natural park.
According to the councilman, the problem lies in "the lack of control of the mosquito population in the Natural Park of Punta Entinas. The Junta has deceived the public, lying about their obligations of the management of mosquitoes in the area”.
Sr Visieras asked why, in the recent meeting, "instead of the delegate, who promised to come but instead went to Fiñana for no good reason, a technician, with no real responsibility, from the Delegation was responsible for conducting the meeting ".
The councilman stressed that the meeting proceeded normally, and noted the "professionalism and scientific rigor" in the study conducted by the scientists from Huelva, responsible for analyzing the presence of these insects in Punta Entina.
However, he clarifies that at the end of the meeting, the technician from the Delegation of Environment told those present, "with a nervous little smile, that the powers within the protected area of Punta Entinas Sabinar are delegated to the municipalities affected”
Therefore, the area of Health of the City of El Ejido has commissioned a study from their law firm to ask for a legal opinion on whose duty it is to fumigate in the area.
The area of Punta Entinas was handed over to the Junta de Andalucía some years ago, as it was considered to be a natural park and hence outside of the control of the townhall.
The Junta asked for an independent study to be carried out on how best to fumigate the area without damaging other natural species.
This report, which took two years to compile, was finally finished last month.
However, El Ejido townhall has indicated that the Junta does not appear ready to authorise the fumigation, but neither is it prepared to hand permission back to the scandal ridden townhall.
Meanwhile, local residents continue to complain about “enormous” mosquitos, and fear the worse for the year ahead.

A WOMAN WAS INJURED in Almeria city yesterday evening when a glass cornice fell on her.
The accident occurred at around 18:30 in the central Paseo de Almeria shopping street. The glass and metal cornice, which measured one metre by 50 centimetres, fell from a first floor balcony of the building which houses the BBVA bank and struck the woman on the shoulder.
Emergency services were called and the woman was taken to hospital. Witnesses report she was conscious as she was taken away by ambulance and public works councillor, Francisco Amizián, confirmed the woman had not suffered any serious injuries.
A member of the ambulance crew said: “She has been lucky that it struck her on the shoulder. If it had hit her head, she would not be around to tell the story.”
All the other cornices on the building have now been removed while technicians from the council study whether or not they are safe.
Members of the council attended to inspect the building and the area of street surrounding it was temporarily cordoned off.