TV3 finally broadcasts the documentary 'Flood Alert' and leads the night

TV3 managed to lead the television ratings on Tuesday night with Nights without fiction, which the documentary offered Flood alert It garnered an average of 272,000 viewers and a 15.7% audience share. This journalistic piece explained the pressure exerted on technicians at the Catalan Water Agency (ACA), during the height of the construction boom, to sign reports favorable to projects in flood-prone areas. The report was preceded by controversy, as it was initially scheduled to air at the end of September, but its broadcast was cancelled when the news department postponed it indefinitely, deeming it did not meet the Corporation's journalistic standards. Its authors, however, considered it an act of censorship and obtained a statement of condemnation from the Professional Committee, the body representing all journalists working at TV3. At the heart of the controversy was the use of unidentified witnesses who did not appear on screen to protect them; instead, actors read their statements. Likewise, the allegations they made avoided specifying years and locations, also with the aim of preventing the identification of the whistleblowers who had revealed the pressure. Conversely, for the authors, the reason for the paralysis was different: a pact they attributed to the news director, Albert Calatrava, and the documentary director, David Bassa, with the implicated departments of the Generalitat (Catalan government), according to which these witnesses would not appear. The version that was finally broadcast this Tuesday did not present significant changes compared to the first cut. Only some of the witnesses who were repetitive were cut, and texts were added justifying the use of actors and vaguely worded allegations. These captions clarify that everything was internally verified with other sources to confirm its veracity. The authors and the program have not expressed any complaints regarding the version that was finally broadcast.