Despite all the criticisms recently made of Catalan public broadcasting, the data shows that the most balanced television station in the lead-up to the referendum was TV3. The talk shows presented by the Catalan public channel offered a greater variety of opinions in the days preceding the independence referendum of October 1st, according to the broadcasting regulatory body, the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia.
According to the Council, 55% of TV3 talk show participants spoke in favour of having the vote and 38% were against. The remaining 6% defended that an independence referendum was legitimate, but thought that this one was not legal.
The study shows that, by contrast, the Spanish private network Telecinco and the Spanish public news channel Canal 24h were the broadcasters where fewest voices were heard in favour of the October 1st referendum: Telecinco did not have a single talk show guest who spoke in favour of the vote while the Spanish public channel only had 2.1% of guests who supported holding the poll.
The report by the Catalan regulatory authority on the level of pluralism in TV talk shows analyzed 125 regular talk programmes and special broadcasts by the different television channels that went to air in Catalonia between 11th and 30th September.