I made a video (subtitles in English are available) for my association’s YouTube channel about last week’s Change.org’s event in Malasaña. I recorded about 10 videos of the interviews being done by the news channels that were following El Grupo Turin’s members as they were dressing the statues as housekeepers. I edited these videos to capture the parts that highlighted how el Convenio 189 would promote the rights of domestic workers in Spain. Even though there was one news channel that followed the event consistently as we walked and took the Metro from one statue to the other, there were other news channels that were noticeably neither organized nor considerate about El Grupo Turin’s time or energy. The members were thankful to be getting the coverage that they wished they had gotten earlier in the summer, during El Festival at La Puerta del Sol, right before Congress reviewed el Convenio. Now, however, because one of the members, Rafaela Pimentel, had gotten 100.000 signatures on her Change.org petition in a month, their cause was starting to get much more attention. Nevertheless, one particular news channel wanted El Grupo Turin and the people who were volunteering in the event, like myself and people from other organizations, to do the work for them. They wanted us to email them videos of the event as it was happening even though they had failed be there at the agreed time. Later on, when the event ended at the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, the news channel was waiting outside because they had also failed to arrange the necessary documentation to get inside. Many of the members had to get to work after the event but still gave this news channel an interview.
A similar situation occurred yesterday, when I went to the same news channel with El Grupo Turin, where they had been told they were going to be in a 15-minute segment. It is a bit difficult to get to the channel in public transportation so they agreed to pick up the members at an agreed location but did not tell them how many people they could bring. So I had to wait for them at the channel to see if I could be allowed inside with them. They were also not told how many of them would be interviewed. We got there at 9:00 am and the segment was supposed to begin at 10:30 but it was pushed back to 11:30. I was sitting back in the audience with three of the members and decided to step out when the newswoman decided to ask the “four domestic workers” in the back a couple of questions. Because I had sensed that she intended to reduce the time of the segment, I decided to not take the space of the people who had need every opportunity they can get to make their cause visible. Nevertheless, the segment was only five minutes so the members were not able to discuss the topics they had planned to bring up during the interview. This kind of inconsiderate treatment is a reflection of how much the state disregards the importance of labor rights for domestic workers.
Okay, bear with me because I may be a a bit contrary in my questions. Is the news channel owned by the state? If not, how is this a reflection of the state’s attitude toward domestic workers’ rights? (I’ve no doubt that you are accurate about the state’s attitude, but not sure this is an example of that!) Also, is this not how local news stations treat many other stories? For example, I *just* had lunch with a friend who took photos at an antigentrification protest in Crown Heights this weekend and, since his photos were on Instagram (and, therefore, public), he was contacted by news organizations to learn whether they could reprint his work. I wonder if that’s a function of the pressure on news agencies to produce a constant feed of stories and images more than the station’s indictment of the cause SEDOAC stands for. It would be interesting to look at broader trends around what news stations cover and what they don’t in Spain. All of this aside, it does sound like you and the other ladies of SEDOAC were treated poorly in this situation. I hope those five minutes of airtime did some good though.
The news channel is not owned by the state but I meant that “this is a reflection of the state’s attitude toward domestic workers’ rights” as in it seemed as though this particular news channel sides with the Popular Party’s view on domestic work. This is the party in power at the moment and the only one against el convenio 189. Other news channels that have interviewed Sedoac in the past have even continued to follow up with Sedoac’s president on any advancement they make on ratifying el convenio. On the other hand, this news channel spent about 15 minutes on some news about beef where the reporter asked the person they brought in several questions. Also, I think asking for videos and photos is fine as long as the news channel did not make prior commitments to be there themselves. It could just be that this is what happens with news organizations, like you pointed out, but since Sedoac’s members also feel the same way (one of them even said she felt she was been patronized by the reporter’s assistant while we were waiting), I feel that this has more to do with the way they view domestic work than with how much effort and consideration is put into doing each news segment. I did talk to Sedoac’s president about this and she also pointed out that news channels in Madrid work differently from each other so this was not a surprise to her. I will take your suggestion and ask her more about other experiences Sedoac has had with news channels and, more specifically, about whether they have been treated differently by state owned and private news channels.