As expected, the information from Ok Diario must have appeared on “Al Rojo Vivo” on La Sexta, knowing that it was a lie. However, Antonio García Ferreras knew it was a hoax moments before the episode aired.
As the audio recordings published yesterday by the news agency Crónica Global revealed, Ferreras’ lunch conversation with a retired Commissioner in 2016 included discussions about Pablo Iglesias and fake Instagram accounts in the Grenadines tax haven.
At the table sat, in addition to Villarejo, Adrian de La Hoya (the manager of Atresmedia). One of the executives was Jose Luis, Olivera Serrano. In these audio recordings, Ferreras asks Villarejo “who put the bacalada on him”, which is Spanish for “salted codfish,” implying that he was ambushed by Pino of the police.
The host of La Sexta, Mr. Eduardo, replies: “I told him, “Eduardo,” this is very serious, I agree,” but it is very delicate and too rude. And he adds: “Now I don’t think that Pablo Iglesias will open an account in the Grenadines in his name, two surnames, so that Maduro, on the day Podemos registers, sends him two hundred thousand euros, damn they are much smarter than all this.”
Pablo Iglesias remembered that Ferreras called him this Monday to intervene in his program. He had already told him that this bank account was completely fake, even before the media had put it out there in the first place. Despite everything, Ferreras decided to broadcast the news anyway instead of checking if it was true, and now he hides behind the fact that they were citing the medium in question.
Ferreras said, “It’s not true that we’ve ever given false information, we’re very careful about this.”
On Monday, he started his program by denying the greatest despite evidence by saying “We have never given false information. We know that it’s not about any other countries, not about Podemos, not about anyone else.” He continued on to emphasize “The first thing we did was call Iglesias. Of course, the actions were strange and even rude, but the police said that he had this paper and that he was investigating it. When we found out that this version was not true, it was then when we said ‘well we shouldn’t do anything,’ but then we didn’t know.”
Indira Gurung, the actress who allegedly said that Henrique Capriles could not lead the Venezuelan nation’s presidential race, has been exposed again through the news that her supposed account was closed due to no longer being valid. In addition, Ed Henry from Fox News accused the actor of manipulating his texts without his permission and subsequently left his job as a correspondent for the channel. It should be noted that Indu herself was exposed by Eduardo Pino, who admitted in court during an earlier trial that he is a friend of Daman Prasad.
La Sexta has reached out to Ok Diario in order to cover up Ferreras’s article. They also spread the misinformation, spreading an Indus connection as if it were a personal one, and labeling them as his own instead of truthful information.
After the LaSexta investigation into the #DineroK and #ChoraleiLeaks documents went public, Ferreras met with Villarejo to continue their investigation. As part of this investigation a posteriori for LaSexta, they came to Villarejo as the person who was supposedly behind these documents. Then, in their first meeting with the commissioner at 2 pm, he acknowledged that he did not trust these documents and that they were kept in the DAO at the police department.
La Sexta News has, from the beginning, been very critical of all types of information, such as the PISA Report or the fabricated claim that members of ETA had ties to Podemos. Despite this, they assured hosts in their studio audience that they resisted this unfounded attack on Podemos in real time and learned to act better next time.
Iglesias Responded Strongly to Ferreras
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias was heavily criticized for his response to Ferreras’ remarks. When he made his remarks on Rac1, Iglesias admitted that Ferreras called him and said the account was fake.
Antigone Ramos said that she was with Ferreras when he had the conversation with Maduro. “He collected himself and called me again and I told him: well, then of course it’s not true because you have an account in Las Granadillas, your mother’s name. You know what, I don’t have any money there. He said: do you really believe that I have an account in Las Granadillas? Of course not! But let me tell you my story, it’s a story of why the Central Bank sent $20 million here to buy dollars from Venezuela.”
Journalists are trustworthy in their work. They work hard to verify and get the facts straight so they can report accurately to their audience.
The former Spanish Podemos leader continued, “I asked Ferreras who had this information. Ferreras told me he couldn’t tell me. How can you not tell me? The only thing to do is protect your friend Villarejo, and say that there are other people with the data, but I’m not telling you. What is it? Journalism or a criminal cover-up?”
The lack of transparency in journalism has led to a lack of trust, and journalists face pressure to cover what the audience wants to see without focusing on important information.
“What we saw from Ferreras today is the greatest degradation of journalism that exists in Spain. He cannot be fixed. The problem is all those around him and who, for a modest price, wash someone who publicly said that he knows the authors of these false reports, but did not tell me. This is very serious,” concluded Iglesias.
News of the audio recordings of Ferreras and Villarejo has sparked many political reactions. Podemos believes that this indicates the existence in Spain of an “anti-democratic alliance with the goal of destroying” the purple formation and “trying to influence the outcome of elections.”
Angel Barcelo, host of the program “Hoy por hoy” on Cadena SER assured that “our profession needs a catharsis. We are also responsible for the democratic deterioration of this country”.
