Spanish journos plan strike to stem job loss

Posted by Lisette García on November 5, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Under the banner, "Our precarity is your disinformation," the 600,000 member-journalists in 116 countries of the International Federation of Journalists have declared today to be the International Day in Defense of Journalists, the Madrid Press Association announced Monday on its Web site.

In support of that campaign, Spanish journalists have advised they would "take to the streets" at noon "in defense of media professionals' employment rights" and the public's right to quality, credible news reporting. A journalism school in Catalunya also promised to picket in solidarity at San Jaume Plaza during the same hour.

A further public protest is planned for Thursday, November 11, by the staff of 20 Minutos, a free national tabloid, 233 Grados reported last month. According to PR Noticias, 20 Minutos staff interrupted a management meeting in late October to announce their particular strike and demand the leadership's resignation for failing to generate profits while ignoring staff writers' proposals on doing so.

The tabloid's staff - which stood at 340 a year ago - has been reduced by 140, with more cuts in the online division underway, Press Digital reported in October.

The missive from the Madrid Press Association blames job loss and poorer journalism on the switch to digital, taking special issue with The Guardian's use of rotating bloggers, which the MPA labeled pseudo-journalism.