ABSTRACT

The RTVE Corporation received a request for access to information aimed at knowing the cost of the different television channels managed by the Corporation. The request was rejected because RTVE considered that, in order to provide the information, it had to carry out a prior activity of reprocessing the information, a circumstance that is among those foreseen in the Transparency Law to be able to deny the information. This was due to the fact that, according to RTVE, “there are no specific data on the cost of the RTVE channels either as a whole or for each of the channels” since it is information that requires the use of cost accounting or analytics. RTVE also completed the arguments for denying information that knowledge of channel costs could harm its business interests, creating a competitive disadvantage that would harm it compared to private operators.

After receiving the negative response from RTVE, the citizen filed a complaint with the Council of Transparency and Good Governance on April 20, 2015, which considered it and urged RTVE to provide the requested information within 15 days. In particular, the Transparency and Good Governance Council considered that it was not adequately justified that the information had to be reworked in advance in order to provide it and that knowledge of the information requested does not harm RTVE’s economic and commercial interests. Specifically, the Council stated in its resolution that “It is only a matter of indicating to the claimant how much RTVE invests in each television channel in one year (the total amount in euros, without breaking down the specific headings), without affecting the reasons why it allocates more or less resources to one particular channel to the detriment of the others or whether it would be advisable to invest more resources to one channel than to another. Nor is it requested to provide information on the audiences of each channel or on the economic profitability of having open or not certain channels or on the content of the decisions of its Board of Directors in this matter.

The ruling is already firm and estimates the appeal filed by the RTVE Corporation. You can consult the judgment of the Administrative Central Court No. 9 of Madrid and the judgment on appeal before the National High Court, which reconfirms the judgment of first instance.