The First Report on Transparency in the Spanish Audiovisual Sector dates from 14 February 2006, when the emergent research group Transparency, Good Governance and Communication (TRA.BU.COM.) took its first, albeit informal, steps. Two years have since passed, and the initial research project has finally come to fruition. Over which time the project – without deviating from its objectives (to outline the legal framework for transparency in the Spanish audiovisual sector and compare the audiovisual sector’s own perception of itself in terms of transparency alongside that held by other parties) – evolved, affecting, first and foremost, not the method, but rather the work instruments and members of the group whose professional, academic or educational status had changed over the last two years, and which had entailed a fruitful execution and completion of a research effort based on transparency in the European Union.
Documentation and conceptual research into transparency has spanned a one-year period and the fruits of its labour can be found in the publication entitled Transparencia en el Sector Audiovisual. Comentarios a la Normativa Española y Comunitaria (Transparency in the Audiovisual Sector. Comments on Spanish and Community Law) (Bosch, 2007). This text must be an unwavering point of reference for all those who, upon reading this First Report on Transparency in the Spanish Audiovisual Sector, acknowledge the need to establish or identify a regulatory framework, as a whole, as well as the most significant doctrinal and jurisprudential positions.
The field work that has culminated in the drafting of this Report has also been carried out over a one-year period under the gentle yet determined supervision of Professor Laura López Martín. She has compiled an exhaustive database comprising all individuals employed in the Spanish audiovisual sector, which is key to identifying interview subjects and authors or producers of the websites that have been subject to analysis.
Contributions from PhD students Rosalía Alcubilla and Gema Toledo in the gathering of information, analysis of audiovisual workers’ websites and their automated processing has also proven to be fundamental in drawing up this Report. And words cannot adequately express the devotion of Professor Gutiérrez David, PhD, her dedication and rigorous attention to detail, both during the field work that was carried out and in editing the Report. Furthermore, it is both my duty and honour, to extend warm thanks and pay tribute to the discreet, service-oriented attitude and commitment of Executive Secretary, PhD student De Santiago Freda, to the group.
This report, much like the work published by Bosch, is the fruit of typical academic and scientific undertakings comprising a number of collaborative works to which each author has contributed significantly in accordance with his qualifications, skills, time and energy – and by means of which all participants have sought to give both the project and research group fresh impetus for the benefit of the Spanish university and the fields of information and legal science.
La Coruña, 27 December 2007
María Pilar Cousido González
