Spanish media self-regulation: its purpose and challenges

Resumen

This paper gives a brief overview of the media self-regulation bodies in Spain, what they are, their historical background and the challenges they face today. It will examine the activities of the audiovisual regulatory bodies in Catalonia and Andalusia and the controversy over the creation of an audiovisual self-regulation commission for the whole country. It will then go on to present the activities of Autocontrol, an independent association with responsibility for regulating the advertising industry. Finally, it will examine the challenges facing the Federation of Associations of Spanish Journalists (FAPE) and their self-regulation activities, particularly since 2011. In this year, FAPE promoted the creation of an independent foundation that would bring together various institutions to support the work of its arbitration, complaints and ethics commission.