Recent years, under the PP government, have seriously weakened the credibility of Spanish public broadcaster TVE. The latest report from the Pew Research Center says that, after analysing a number of public broadcasters around the continent, Spain's TVE comes off worst by most of the metrics.
Whilst in the UK, the BBC is chosen by 48% as their main news source, and SVT is chosen by 39% of Swedes, in Spain, only 13% head to TVE first. This is the lowest of any of the countries surveyed.
As for trust, TVE also comes last. 38% of respondents say they don't trust Spanish public TV. At the other extreme, only 8% say they don't trust Swiss public TV, 15% that they distrust Germany's ARD and 19%, the BBC.
Finally, when directly comparing them, only 42% of Spanish respondents, like the Italians, say they trust public media more than private (38% prefer private). By way of contrast, 73% of Swedish respondents trust public news sources more than private ones, a figure that is 71% in the UK.
These bad numbers for TVE come after months of criticisms from staff, who have already denounced its censorship and manipulation to the European Parliament. What's more, staff at the channel dress in black every Friday as a visual protest.