The Ibex-35 must stop financing disinformation

I am reading an interesting report from the Observatory of Media and Responsible Information that examines whether Spanish Ibex-35 companies have protocols that distance them from disinformation. The result is a resounding (and worrying) no. These are listed companies and that forces them to reveal their numbers down to the last detail. However, because laws always lag behind technological changes, they do not have the requirement to be equally transparent with something as sensitive as information. According to the report, a round 0% of Ibex companies are transparent in this regard, only 11% are translucent, and the vast majority remaining, 89%, are opaque. The work shows that the problem is born at the origin: only 6% of these companies have a sufficient general communication policy, 60% have partial policies, and 34% have none at all.

Among the multiple factors analyzed, one seems particularly relevant to me: the one that indicates whether that company maintains “a commitment to media that comply with editorial integrity standards”. That is, whether when placing advertising, they exclude pseudo-media that are dedicated to disinformation. The answer is a depressing 0% of affirmative responses. These large companies, due to their size, have a series of responsibilities to citizens and many make gestures – even if only for show – to sell the notion that they adopt a social vision. But they have not yet assumed their fundamental role so that the communication system of the territory where they operate is a crystal-clear lake of fair waters and not a swamp full of mud. If they truly want to be a good influence, they must stop financing the remnants of journalism that hide behind headlines that earn more from what they don't publish than from what they do. Will any of them take the first step against the empire of discreet extortion?