The day that 'El Mundo' inconvenienced its readers

BarcelonaIn 2019, the newspaper El Mundo launched a campaign with the slogan "The truth, however uncomfortable it may be". Over time, this phrase has become institutionalized and the newspaper uses it regularly to promote itself. I thought about this when, this week, I read a report on Ceuta that certainly caused discomfort among its own readers, as could be seen in the comments section.

Journalist Ana María Ortiz published that there were Ceuta residents who were profiting at the expense of migrants who are not hosted in the centers prepared by the central government. How? By renting them spaces such as basements, rooftops, or other outdoor areas for 15 euros a night. The headline was quite striking: "The big score of the migrant attics in Ceuta: 7,000 euros to let 15 immigrants sleep". The reporter explained the case of a rooftop where up to 15 immigrants were crammed. Doing the math, it came out to 225 euros a day for the owner, and 7,000 per month. The subtitle was a direct quote that made your hair stand on end: "Some cannot sleep until 9 in the morning because there is no room, they are stuck [together]". The report was very exhaustive in explaining the practices of some Ceuta residents to profit from migrants: they even charge them to charge their phones!

But the interesting thing here was the uncomfortable reaction of the readers. Some tried to divert attention to point out that these migrants are not as poor as they want people to believe, others tried to justify the Ceuta residents with the argument that, since they have to suffer the "invasion", they might as well get something out of it. And then there was the best comment of all, which said: "Spaniards being Spaniards. Complaining and at the same time doing business with misery. I wish they had a memory of how badly they lived in Germany, Switzerland, and France when it was their turn to emigrate".