Eduardo González
Spanish Radio and Television (RTVE) has attributed the inclusion of Western Sahara on a map of Morocco during a report on the 2030 Soccer World Cup to a “regrettable error”, caused by “the rush of informative work and the lack of verification”.
Sumar, the leftist party of vice president Yolanda Díaz, had addressed a written parliamentary question to the Board of Directors of the RTVE Corporation in which it regretted that, “on the occasion of information about the soccer World Cup to be organized by Spain, Portugal and Morocco”, TVE’s midday news on October 5 projected, “accompanying said information, a map where Western Sahara appeared included in Moroccan territory.”
“Intentionally mixing Western Sahara with Morocco in public entity information could mean joining the wishes of the Alawite monarchy so that the international community accepts its plans as an occupying force on the future of the Sahara, even knowing that the United Nations is calling for the start of a decolonization process by considering that the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco is illegal,” warned MP Enrique Santiago, author of the question.
“It is one thing for Morocco to take center stage in the World Cup by announcing the candidacy before Spain, Portugal and FIFA itself, and it would be quite another to bless by action or omission an illegal occupation and unilateral plans for the future of the Sahara,” he continued.
For this reason, Enrique Santiago asked RTVE if “it has received instructions from the Government to use in its information a map of Morocco contrary to the United Nations agreements that do not recognize the annexation of the Sahara.” Likewise, he requested information on who was “ultimately responsible” for this decision and on “what actions will be carried out to prevent public television from feeding information contrary to the United Nations agreements and Spain’s own position on the matter in the future.” Occidental Sahara”.
In her response, the interim president of the RTVE Corporation and its Board of Directors, Elena Sánchez Caballero, assured that “RTVE is an independent organization and neither this presidency nor any of the Corporation’s professionals receive instructions from the Government.”
According to Sánchez, the case reported by Sumar “was a regrettable error in the program used by the Telediario producers.” “The map that appeared in the sports block was actually the result of an automation generated by a program that is commonly used,” but “the rush of informative work and the lack of verification led us to make the mistake,” she continued.
“The management immediately spoke with graphics to discard that map,” she said. Additionally, “we have given instructions to always use another application (Mapbox) that offers maps with more details of the countries and includes an option that allows you to draw disputed borders,” she concluded.
