Spain’s interior ministry apologised to journalists and denied muzzling the media on Tuesday after a report revealed it had secretly compiled a list of reporters and their political opinions.
The rare freedom of expression row in the EU nation comes with the Socialist-run ministry already under fire over its handling of July’s unprecedented migrant surge into Spain’s north African territory of Ceuta.
Online newspaper El Confidencial published on Tuesday an exclusive about “a dossier on dozens and dozens of active journalists… to monitor their political affiliation”, including directors and popular columnists.
“The document was drawn up in secret… and contains a large number of files” on the journalists accompanied by photographs and “comments on their work and political positions”, El Confidencial said.
“Controversial journalist”, “independent”, “conservative tendency”, “far right”, “disinformation”, “clearly left wing and supports the government”, “lately more combative” and “radical right-wing ideology” were among the descriptions cited by the newspaper.
The Federation of Journalists’ Associations of Spain slammed the ministry for “introducing an element of surveillance and potential retaliation”, a practice that was “incompatible with the rule of law can have consequences on the practice of critical journalism”.
“In a democratic society, no state body has the legitimacy to register, catalogue or ideologically profile those who practise journalism, as it constitutes a direct attack on press freedom,” FE said in a statement.
The interior ministry said in a statement that the list was “an internal document” created in 2024 “with a consultative aim and without any intention of establishing censorship or any restriction or limit on the work of the journalists”.
“We apologise to the professionals who may have felt offended by the document’s contents and by some of the comments made,” the statement added.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a press conference in Ceuta that the document had “no ulterior motive” and “in no way” led to “differences between media organisations or between journalists when it comes to providing information and responding to any request”.
The main opposition right-wing Popular Party accused the interior ministry of “attacking journalists” and contrasted its “blacklist” with the inability to foresee the Ceuta crisis, when more than 70,000 migrants entered from Morocco on July 30 and 31.
“It had a blacklist of journalists to single out and label, which takes us back to bygone times to which we should not return,” said PP spokeswoman Ester Munoz, alluding to the 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
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