La reforma de la legislación audiovisual y de la cobertura electoral en España

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this article is to propose the reform of the regulation in force in Spain on the coverage and treatment of information in the audiovisual media during electoral campaigns, in relation to the mandatory transposition into Spanish legislation, before the end of 2020, of Directive 1808/2018 of audiovisual communication. Methodology: For this, a review of the most relevant legislation in the field is carried out, including the Organic Law of Electoral Regime (LOREG by its acronym in Spanish) of 1985, the different laws of creation of public and private media, General 7/2010 Law of Audiovisual (LGA by its acronym in Spanish), the European Audiovisual Services Directive approved in 2018 and the regulation in other European countries on the organization of electoral debates and disinformation campaigns. Results: Although the 35 years of validity of the LOREG and its jurisprudence condition the legal framework of the audiovisual coverage of the electoral campaigns, it is possible to include  in the transposition and reform of the LGA 7/2010 the regulation of the debates and new measures on the protection of pluralism, independence, and verification against fake news, issues that a group of Spanish academics raised during the public consultation of the Secretary of State for Digital Advancement (SEAD by its acronym in Spanish) of the Ministry of Economy and Business (MEE by its acronym in Spanish) on the transposition of Directive 1808/2018.