The Spanish media landscape is characterised by a high level of concentration at the national level. The privately owned media groups Atresmedia and Mediaset and the public broadcaster RTVE have a monopoly on the market. At the regional level, this sector is marked by a significant presence of public broadcasters allied in the Federation of Regional Radio and Television Entities (FORTA), which increases the risk of political interference. There is more diversity in the print media sector.

Driven by the polarisation of Spanish society, a segment of the media is increasingly replacing news with opinion. Pedro Sánchez's government has made a firm commitment to enforcing the EMFA and combating disinformation and has proposed a series of measures that aim to increase the transparency of media ownership and public advertising revenues, professional secrecy, public access to information and reform of the sector's regulatory body, among other things. Many of these measures may never see the light of day, given that the government relies on unstable parliamentary alliances.

Political tensions are spilling over into the judiciary. It is not only politicians who are taking journalists to court for disclosure of secrets or defamation; judges are doing so too. This climate of “legal warfare” against the press underscores the urgent need to implement the European anti-SLAPP directive. Furthermore, the most controversial provisions of the “gag law” and the “crimes of opinion” in the criminal code have still not been repealed; a promise the government seems definitively incapable of keeping. The governing bodies of public radio and television continue to be appointed without regard for the independence recommended by the EMFA. As a result, RTVE’s editorial line is increasingly biased in favour of the government.

The highly concentrated and weakened media market has plunged Spanish journalism into a state of chronic uncertainty. Many media professionals struggle to make a decent living from their work. At the same time, these media outlets, which are in the throes of a serious crisis, are becoming increasingly vulnerable to political and economic pressure. As part of its plan to apply the EMFA, the government has approved a 70 million EUR project to help digitise print media. The project has been greenlighted by the European Commission.

Spanish society is tolerant and open to diversity, respectful of the rights of women and the LGTBIQ+ community, and journalists rarely face pressure other than that coming from the authorities. Nonetheless, the growing polarisation and radicalisation of public opinion is reflected in a climate of hostility towards journalists, one of the professions least appreciated by Spaniards.

The rise of the far right and its visibility on social media has led to an increase in cyber-harassment, and attacks in the field are frequent. The extreme-right Vox party uses “pseudo-journalists” to disrupt press conferences in Parliament and harass critical journalists, even in their private lives. Politicians and digital media outlets with links to the far right are complicit in this harassment, which targets women journalists in particular. Women journalists are also victims of cyberviolence that is increasingly spilling over into the real world.