Institutions and control regulations of the news programs are seen as the last chance for the Public Service Broadcasters (PSB) to achieve and maintain pluralism, which is almost utopian. In Spain and in the neighboring countries, the situation is in the boundaries of emergency. The general crisis and the specific one in the audiovisual sector as a result of the implementation of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) put the Spanish PSB, which since its foundation lacks of an appropriate management model, on the brink of extinction. In some cases, the catastrophe has been accomplished like in the Valencian regional broadcasting (RTVV), which closed on 29 November 2013. This circumstance is unique in the Spanish television landscape, although it was preceded by the closing down of the Greek public television Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (ERT), which closed on 12 June 2013, and was reopened after its resizing, which took place on 11 June 2015. It was named as Néa Ellinikí Radiofonía, Ínternet kai Tileórasi (NERIT). The disappearance of Channel 9 (RTVV) had a disastrous effect on the audiovisual sector in Valencia. As a result, not only the percentage of unemployment among professionals has drastically increased; reaching a rate of 92% (Mesa Sectorial de l’Audiovisual Valencià (MESAV), 2014) but it has also caused the liquidation of the 95% of the industrial fabric (Pellisser Rosell & Mollà, 2014). The circumstances and reasons which have led to the closure of RTVV are being investigated by judicial authorities, and it is foreseeable that it "For years, it will be studied for generations of television researchers, even internationally" (Soler Campillo & Marzal Felici, 2015: 114-115). If something got the Partido Popular, who is responsible for the closure of RTVV, it was the fact that the whole society joined against it (Peris Planes, 2014: 199), and the union of the opposition parties pronounced themselves unanimously in favour of its reopening. The recent change in the Generalitat Valenciana Government leaves behind twenty years of right-wing policies, which without any doubt will positively affect the future of RTVV. Over these last two years, its precipitate closure has been legally analyzed in several studies (Vidal Beltran, 2015; 2014; 2013; Andres Segovia, 2014). But beyond the legal point of view, the new RTVV may allow a future full of possibilities, which gives a situation of tabula rasa. It is a future, in which it is necessary that we take advantages of the political and civic situation in order to avoid repeating past mistakes. According to Miquel de Moragas and Emilio Prado, “define the PSB’s mission is the key to the debate on the legitimacy of public television” (2000: 91). At the same time, it is necessary to establish the tools to ensure plurality of information inherent to the public service. The main objectives of this thesis are these tools, whose basis is not only legal. As noted by Juan Carlos Miguel and Miguel Angel Casado, "the research of independence is not achieved only by changing the laws, but also learning and democratic experience are required" “the quest for independence is not achieved only by changing the law, it also requires a learning and democratic process” (2012: 24). It should be added, according to Garcia-Marzá that "the democratic system is more than the party system, political representation and majority rule" (2015: 175). The Valencian Community has set as a model of waste, corruption and mismanagement. Although per capita spending is not really high, and at the base of soaring deficit is also an endemic negative financing (Boira Maiques, 2012: 60). Channel 9 has suffered a similar fate parallel to the fate of their homeland: they gave the example of unlimited corruption, debt, mismanagement and manipulation. A well-earned fame, certainly, although it may share with many other broadcasters of their environment, especially the one that is the reference for all the others in Spain, RTVE. Government guarantees, enabling public broadcasters to accumulate deficits without the possibility of going bankrupt (while broadcasters like RTVE were virtually bankrupt), had to be abolished. […] The Commission demanded the abolishment of these guarantees, claiming they constituted an unfair advantage vis-á-vis competitors. However, these mechanisms also gravely undermined the financial health of public broadcasters in Southern Europe, adding to their political dependence. (Donders, 2011: 117) These circumstances make the ultra-liberal sector find enough reasons for its closure (Zallo, 2015: 105). The worldwide crisis causes indiscriminate attacks to PSB: Detractors of public service media have seized on the economic crisis as an opportunity that should not be ‘wasted’. This position is understandable in key respects and we don’t embrace the notion that all of its critics and opponents are ‘bad guys’. Attacks on PSM [Public Service Media] have been fuelled by legitimate concerns caused by economic turmoil within media industries following sharp declines in advertising revenue and consumer spending. (Lowe & Steemers, 2012: 4) The immediate context is characterized by a paradigm shift in RTVE that has exponentially worsened the situation. To the loss of budgetary stability, coupled with deterioration in the trust of the audience in recent times, we must add a significant decrease in the quality and independence of the information programs in the public television, which can only be described as a backward movement. In addition, RTVE has the sad record of 29 CEOs, since its founding in 1956. The BBC has so far had only 14 director-generals and 5 Presidents, and it’s important to remember that British emissions began 30 years earlier. The management of those who, were appointed by the government of Mariano Rajoy has degraded with constant economic adjustments and a growing loss of prestige of RTVE, reducing the social weight of the PSB (Bustamante, 2013b). The objective of this research has been the evaluation of the effectiveness of control mechanisms of pluralism and independence of information on public television. The first task was looking back in order to understand the current moment. The historical-structural study of the evolution of television shows the great weight of tradition in the current system. The duopoly of private television in Spain, the alleged crisis of the group of companies who share the radio spectrum, the endemic lack of plurality and poor performance of the duties of our PSB in general, are better understood after analyzing how the sector has evolved in recent decades. In the thesis we have analyzed one by one, the different legal restrictions that try to ensure plurality. Beyond these, we review the theories of ethics and morality, specifically applied to the business field since the seventies of the last century (Campos Freire, 2015; Garcia-Marzá, 2015; Perdiguero, 2003). Also recently this goodwill has been developed by the so-called "economy for the common good" (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie), linked to movements like “Occupy”, or 15-M (Felber, 2012, Zamagni, 2012). Some authors have applied these concepts directly to the Mass-Media field with the "communicative responsibility" (Responsabilidad Comunicativa) (Bernardo Paniagua & Pellisser Rosell, 2015; Bernardo Paniagua, Pellisser Rosell, Vicent & Lopez, 2011). These are issues, which have also been promoted by the European Union, whose aims through transparency, accountability and participation citizens are aware of the importance of their institutions. Concepts such as "habit", that is to say, the nature that predisposes to transparency to take or not social responsibility (Cortina, 2003: 19), or the "stakeholders" theory (Freeman, Harrison, & Wicks, 2007), which distributes the ethical responsibility among managers, employees and customers, are particularly interesting. This willingness to do things well and to act properly in order to achieve the common objective among all stakeholders’ is intensified in periods of time like the ones we are living nowadays. And it can be especially valid in the uncertain future of Valencian audiovisual sector. As tools of this kind, exists the “Public Value Test” or the “Accountability”, both coming from the BBC, and implemented in many continental PSB. Accountability is the responsibility of the journalist or journalists’ coordinator, with the obligation to explain to the audience the reasons or motives for choosing a particular approach, leaving a story inside or outside the news bulletin. In the British public television it is organized through an internet access, thanks to a blog in which spectators can ask questions to the editor of every program and those are obliged to answer. It is in these tools, more ethereal than the legal issues, in which we have based the logical of the increase of the plurality that took place in the last short stage of Channel 9, and we've linked it to two other situations that stand out above the average of plurality in the history of television in Spain: the also short stage under the direction of Fernando Castedo in the RTVE of the early eighties, and the consolidated editor-in-chief Fran Llorente leading the newsroom of TVE with the socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in top of the Spanish Government. With regard to future research that can be opened beyond this thesis, we think it may be interesting to follow BBC and British Government movements before the renewal of the Royal Charter that will occur as tradition dictates, at the end of the year 2016. The debate is open now, and in the summer of 2015 it has been published the working document in which the British Ministry of Culture presents the model for the future of television (Department for culture, media and sports, 2015). Mechanisms and systems that would be applicable, of course, to others European PSB, and specifically, when our politicians will decide to reopen the new Channel 9. What seems certain is that the convergence of the media, the citizen participation through the Internet, and the shared responsibility in its various forms, will be at the foundation of this necessary and urgent renovation of public television that extends at this time before us as a challenge.
