A year ago, TV3 reacted late and badly with the coverage of the Paüls fire that affected different municipalities in Baix Ebre. With more than 2,800 hectares burned, nine municipalities confined and with the fire out of control, the public television did not pay enough attention to the fire, especially during the most critical night. In an exercise of cynicism, the channel premiered that evening the series Delta Aquaterra, a suspense thriller that showed the landscapes of that territory, covering up the most tragic reality that was being suffered in those regions. One year later, we cannot say that the network has learned its lesson or has demonstrated informational action protocols in cases like this, unfortunately predictable at this time of year. At midday, there were still 1,200 hectares burned in the Gavarres massif and more than fifty thousand people confined in seven towns, but after Telenotícies, the recipe for Cuines's rice dish was not missing. We also didn't miss Com si fos ahir and, even less so, El paradís de les senyores, because the country is burning, but we need to know about the fashion department store's troubles in Milan.The monitoring of the fires fell to 3CatInfo, which split the screen to keep the images of the fire on the left side to offer the sensation of continuous information. At all times, live connections were made with the dispatched teams, interviews with the mayors, and statements from the authorities. Of course, incorporating the latest information on the Andic case. At quarter past seven in the evening, a caption warned on screen that there was a detainee related to the fire. With the start of La selva, in the afternoon, TV3 reactivated the information on the fires and extended the program's broadcast until the time of the Telenotícies. Atrapa’m si pots and Està passant were cancelled to prioritize last-minute live information. The format of the afternoon magazine was maintained and Xavier Grasset, mobile in hand, strengthened the connections with the different critical points, and interviews with mayors and experts to analyze the context. All this was enlivened by the usual collaborators of the round tables to fill in the service information. But they did not give up some of the planned content. In the midst of this scenario, some pastry chefs still presented us with cakes to welcome the Tour de France and did a bit of gossip with the Andic case. On La2 Cat, L’Altaveu by Danae Boronat offered a few connections from Empordà, without spoiling the celebration of the last day of the program. Between fire and fire, they explained to us how to care for plants when we go on vacation, how to prepare the car for the heat, and the team had a great time dancing to Sonia Madoc's summer song: they sang Voy a portarme mal with a shark and a penguin doing the choreographies. A little sense of seriousness doesn't hurt. On TV3, the Telenotíciesvespre had to arrive for it to seem like a first-division television.

Monday evening, Canal 33 offers us the opportunity to travel around the world accompanying Tom Waes, one of the most popular television figures in Belgium. You can catch up on some of his Unusual Trips on the 3Cat platform. Season 7 is complete, with episodes dedicated to Dubai, São Paulo, Bombay, Nairobi, London, or Los Angeles, among others. And from season 5, you can still catch the three magnificent episodes of a long journey that crosses Japan from south to north over three weeks. It's worth it. If you're not flying anywhere this summer, it's an excuse to discover the world. And if you happen to be in one of his destinations, you'll find options not listed in the usual guides.

Sunday, 30 Minuts provided a diagnosis of the AP-7 situation. The title, AP-7, on the edge, fell short of defining how the experience of driving on it has transformed since the road became free. As they sarcastically say on Toni Clapés' Versió RAC1, driving on it has become an experience akin to the movie Mad Max. It was about time journalism paid specific attention to this highway, because the degeneration it suffers is not being denounced as it should be, beyond simply reporting the traffic jams and accidents that occur there day in and day out. We are normalizing a disaster. 30 Minuts warned that the ministry had not wanted to participate in the report, a fact that betrays the neglect the AP-7 receives and the discomfort caused by the lack of investment.

The 3Cat platform has premiered two new episodes of the documentary shorts "Point of no return, by Raül Gallego. Winner of an international Emmy last year, the first episode of this season, Europe: young people and the far-right tide, transports us to the core of the ultra wave that has been so talked about in recent years. And here comes into play the second chapter: Europe: young and anti-fascist, which delves into the youth movements that have organized to confront it. The search for these realities goes beyond Catalonia and is taken to Spain, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Belgium to highlight shared circumstances that are progressively expanding.

Alexis, one of the participants of La gran cita, the reality show from 3Cat to find a partner presented by Dulceida, confessed on El suplement on Catalunya Ràdio that he works as a gigolo. "I tried it and I loved it. I haven't talked about it because people can't imagine what it's like, the people you meet and the experiences you have. And I'll do it again, because it has taught me a lot of things," he defended.

The award-winning documentary series by Raül Gallego, Punt de no retorn, premieres its third season on June 22. It will be available on the 3Cat platform from Monday. Each episode will be forty minutes long and will continue to give visibility to current conflicts. L'ARA spoke with Gallego at the beginning of last year and, in the interview, the director explained the origin of the series, the choice of topics for the episodes, or the author's ability to approach extreme situations and people suffering the consequences of conflicts. But one of the achievements that the Catalan director probably did not imagine reaching at the beginning of the production was winning the International Emmy for Best Short-Form Series in 2024 and the Online Journalism Awards, in the digital short-form video storytelling category.

The various discontents of the TV3 staff with the management of the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA) have culminated in a call for a partial strike that will affect prime time for the midday and evening news on June 30. Tomorrow, a workers' assembly will be held to address the different reasons that have led to this protest measure. In the call for the meeting, the first reason cited is the "numerous appointments of positions of free designation with selection processes and professional profiles that have not had the acceptance or participation of the works council." Staff representatives complain that "the majority have no experience in either radio or television" and that they have "many shortcomings in team management, which has put the occupational health of colleagues in the affected departments at risk."

On Saturday, Col·lapse interviewed Francisco Marco, director of the detective agency Método 3, to explain the defense's version of Jonathan Andic. He was, therefore, a biased guest, who was hired by the lawyer Sebastián de Juan.With his usual indifference, Jordi González said he doubted whether to call it homicide, accident or murder. “Accident,” Marco replied, emphatically. And González heeded him: “Accident,” the presenter repeated. How easy it is to impose a narrative.The detective spoke about the video of Isak Andic's fall months before his death. He explained, mysteriously, that "an important person from this city" had put them on the trail. Before showing the video to the audience, he described it to condition the viewer: "Isak Andic, just and plop! Falls". The onomatopoeia plop is significant, like an acorn falling from a tree. And he added: "But the important thing about this video is that he doesn't put his hands out". But in the images, it is seen that Andic puts his hand on the step of the stairs to avoid hitting his head. Once again, the detective was already telling us what we should see and think. He was constructing the narrative. Marco referred to Isak Andic as "a gentleman who has a knee condition" and who suffers from "a natural, uncontrolled loss of his legs". He also defined the fall as a "loss of verticality". This supposedly technical use of language was not accidental. It contrasted with the colloquial language he used to describe the work of the Mossos. He spoke of the "fables" they invent, the "fabrication" of evidence, and even used sarcasm to discredit them: "“One of the magnificent pieces of evidence that this policeman says...", he commented with contempt.When Jordi González asked him about the origin of that security video, Marco said: “The gentleman, poor me, who saves Isak Andic from getting into a fight, when he finds out who he is, he asks for the images himself and records them from the monitor with his mobile”. The presenter asks: “To keep them as a souvenir?””, and Marco confirms: “To keep them as a souvenir”. Neither González nor Mayka Navarro – who was participating in the interview – asked him how such an unheard-of frivolity was possible. Marco insisted that this mysterious man was the one who warned “a person close to the environment of La Vanguardia” about the video, and repeated that it is about “a very important family in this city”. A way to give him authority.The most serious and grotesque thing is that while they were talking, the program kept looping Andic's fall, over and over again, on the set's screen. The way of dehumanizing the dead, of turning him into a meme, of reducing him to a test, of repeating the image of the falling man to implant it in our minds is alarmingly insensitive. Marco, by the way, explained that sooner or later we would also see some images they had recorded of people being thrown from the mountain tied with harnesses to reproduce the fall, and he assured that if we saw them, “our souls would shrink”. You already know what the next chapter of the defense will be.

Last Friday, on the Telenotícies migdia, Xavi Coral informed us about an advertisement at Palma airport "that is causing a lot of controversy", with this rather bland introductory phrase, worthy of the most exasperating journalistic inertia. In recent years, a good part of the news in the media has begun in the same way. The presenter developed the case. A huge poster from a German bank promoting the immediate sending of money between users has used the following slogan: "What happens in Mallorca is paid for in Mallorca". The text is written in German. In the report by correspondent Caterina Karmany, it was explained how the Balearic Government has requested the removal of the banner because it invites a tourism of excesses, parodying the famous American slogan "What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas". The statements of Antoni Costa, government spokesperson, were included, railing against Aena, because the airport manager has considered it a harmless play on words. Sunday, two days later, on Telenotícies migdia they explained the same news to us again, even including it in the program's opening headlines. Júlia López spoke to us about the airport sign as if we had never heard of it before: “This sign you can see is at Palma airport and it is not without controversy”. Once again this cliché formula, the autopilot wildcard to announce significance. Joan Raventós explained the translation of the sign to us, the nuance that differentiated it from the Las Vegas phrase and the cause that has provoked the unease in Mallorca. Next, they gave way to a new report by Caterina Karmany who explained the news to us again, although this time she included a group of drunken German tourists to highlight the type of tourism the advertisement is aimed at. Aena was no longer mentioned, but it collected the voices of Mallorcans annoyed by a linguistic issue and Germans living on the island, unhappy with the image of Mallorca presented in their country. The news was the same, but it was explained in a different way.It's strange. At least, in its forms. First, because they tell us the same news a second time as if they hadn't done it before. There is no reference to the fact that the news program already covered the case two days ago. As if between Friday and Sunday there was a kind of disconnection, as if they had nothing to do with each other. And the viewer is left with a feeling of living the groundhog day, with a déjà-vu of events that were already explained to them days ago in the same place. It could be that it was a repurposed piece that could not be broadcast on Friday's Telenotícies vespre (evening news), but in any case, you can't sell fish, two days later, as if it were fresh. It creates a greater sense of cohesion and normality if you talk about it as an extension of work. Because otherwise, it ends up seeming that not even the professionals who make the Telenotícies (news) watch their own news program during the week.

Nearly 50,000 people approached the Olympic Ring of Montjuïc this weekend to attend 3Cat en Viu, the event with which the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Media seeks to recover the spirit of Festa dels Súpers but expanding the perimeter to adult spectators, listeners, and users as well. These are figures that fall far short of its predecessor, which disappeared in 2017, when it registered 190,000 visitors – and which had been declining, compared to 2011, when it set a record with 420,000 attendees–.

The Catalan public media outlets are looking to regain the direct contact with the public that was achieved with the Festa del Super3. With this objective, they have organized the first edition of 3Cat en Viu, a two-day event of meetings and activities with some of the best-known faces and voices from TV3, Catalunya Ràdio, and the rest of the channels. It will take place this weekend, from 10 AM to 6 PM, at the Anella Olímpica de Montjuïc in Barcelona.

On Tuesday, on Telenotícies vespre, we were informed of the creation of the office for the protection of linguistic rights by the government of the Generalitat. It is born with the intention of accompanying people who wish to file complaints regarding possible violations in the use of the language. This was communicated by Salvador Illa at the event celebrating the first anniversary of the National Pact for Language, where the Minister of Linguistic Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, admitted that there was still work to be done. And he is right. The same day, during the very long commercial break of El petit peó, the Sense ficció dedicated to Arturito Pomar, we thought about this news. We swallowed ten minutes of ads: a total of twenty-five spots and four self-promotions from the channel. During this commercial break, three ads in Spanish appeared, which, coincidentally or not, were broadcast consecutively. The first was an advertisement for Gillette razor blades designed for female users. Lo and behold, the presenter was the influencer Laura Escanes, who told us that “Hay días que necesito tiempo para mí” and that “el mango pivotante me deja la piel suave incluso en zonas difíciles”. Taking into account that the content creator is part of the channel's roster of signings, it is strange to see her on the same television for which she works addressing the audience in Spanish. Of course, it is not her fault but that of the commercial department, which should take into account this type of contradiction. In the same commercial break, we saw an advertisement for adhesive silicones where the veteran journalist Pedro Piqueras spoke in Catalan with an expert on this product. The other ad in Spanish was for Michelin. If other international brands like Bimbo, Ikea, Carrefour, and Verisure are interested in advertising on TV3 in Catalan (and this is what happened during this long break), surely the very famous tire brand could also do so. Considering the number of Catalan chefs awarded stars by their guide, they know perfectly well that Catalonia has its own cultural identity and language. The other ad in Spanish was, lo and behold, from the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda. A spot narrated in Spanish and subtitled in Catalan. Thanks for the detail. But it is outrageous that an advertisement from a ministry of Spain is not recorded in the different co-official languages of the State. Take note, Councillor Vila. It is unheard of that the Spanish government uses Catalan public television to communicate with citizens in a language that is not the channel's own, because this reinforces the idea that in the institutional sphere, Spanish is the universal main language and Catalan, in subtitles, is of an inferior rank. Normalizing exceptions makes the duty to advertise in Catalan on TV3 lose its meaning. If some companies don't do it, why should others? It deactivates the possibility of applying a criterion and turns it into an inconsistency. And inconsistency affects the legitimacy of any future demand. 

3Cat's SX3, with funding from Grup Transversal, this week opened the doors of Fantàstix, a new cultural, family, and immersive experience focused on the power of stories, imagination, and the active participation of children. Located in the Sagrada Família neighborhood, the space, which was a former 2,000-square-meter parking lot, has been transformed into a "factory of imagination," where the narrative focuses on the premise of recovering the power of storytelling, which has disappeared from the world. The project's intention is to become a new meeting point for families, the educational world, and Catalan children's and youth culture.

On Tuesday, Sense ficció revealed the inner workings of Sopa de Cabra, one of the essential and most successful bands in Catalan rock. Sopa de Cabra, tornar enrere played with the title of one of their songs to revisit the past. The circular structure of the story was a success. The camera, positioned at the top of the stage at the final moment of a concert, follows the musicians to the dressing room, where we witness a conflict. Josep Thió sends everyone away to scold his bandmates in private. A start that anticipates an unusual story, unknown to many of their followers. The documentary interviews each of the group's members separately. A frontal close-up against a neutral background that almost conveys the feeling of an interrogation in which the editing scrutinizes the coincidences in their responses. “Sopa de Cabra has never been a group of friends.” They all agree with this idea, and the viewer will have the opportunity to verify it. Many documentaries that delve into the lives of great rock or pop bands, or music legends, have a certain epic quality, even if there may be episodes of excess and misery. This production, on the other hand, breaks with the usual codes: it recovers archive footage of concerts and interviews, and explains the evolution, crises, and contradictions. It also knows how to activate the nostalgia of the group's followers, and contributes to reordering memories linked to the songs and concerts. But there is no epic. And precisely that is what makes it singular and memorable. Sopa de cabra, tornar enrere emanates a serene sadness, a latent pain that the protagonists have accepted and to which they now seem accustomed. Quintana and company, stars of Catalan rock, present themselves before the camera as anti-heroes and present an intimate narrative that conveys weariness. There is a disillusionment with their own history. The documentary has the virtue of sincerity. The members of Sopa speak with the honesty that comes from the distance of events. They don't need imposture, because now they have nothing to lose. They refer to "the truth we have built together". They seem like victims of the tyranny of their own success, forced to maintain the bond to earn a living, because what they shared worked and was liked. The documentary's strategy of bringing the group together for a meal and observing the relationship dynamics is magnificent, as the discomforts and tensions become evident. The preparation of a recipe becomes a metaphor for the delicate balance of coexistence. The documentary works very well with this sense of strangeness, of constant unease, a drama that rises in intensity and is difficult to understand. And the final twist that explains it is even liberating for the viewer. We understand that uncomfortable conflict that has opened the story. The circle is closed. And it serves as solace.

This 2026, Sopa de Cabra celebrates four decades of trajectory with a commemorative tour and the premiere of the documentary Tornar enrere, directed by Jordi Call. The piece, aired this Tuesday on 3Cat's Sense ficció, highlights various aspects of the band's 40 years that had often remained in the background. For instance, the group members openly admit that they do not maintain a friendship outside the musical project. In fact, the documentary begins with an argument after a concert.

Sunday, the Telenotícies migdia opened, logically, with the Andalusian elections. Thanks to an artificial filigree with rhetoric, it linked to a piece about Isabel Díaz Ayuso's murky trip to Mexico, from which she had already returned six days earlier. But the most surprising thing is that the third news item of the TN (and the second opening headline) was Bulgaria's victory at the Eurovision Festival.After telling us that the song Bangaranga had won, it was framed as an international conflict to explain the influence of the televote in catapulting Israel to second place. The report included a survey of Israeli eurofans. The piece tried hard to give it unjustified geopolitical relevance. It was implied that Telenotícies had predicted a victory for Israel that did not materialize. The problem is not that Eurovision exists within the TN, but the hierarchy and treatment it received. Eurovision took precedence over the war in Ukraine, with Kyiv's biggest attack on Moscow. It also took precedence over the Ebola outbreak and the shooting death of a man in the Port de la Marina neighborhood. As a final touch, they announced the return to prison of a certain Dino Marcelo, and, using the excuse that they had images of him robbing a supermarket, they added statements from his lawyer to justify her client's conduct.The report that followed caused perplexity. It was about catechumens in Catalonia. They explained who they were and the growth of this community, which has gone from 161 adult baptisms in 2022 to 327 in 2026. The information led us to the church of Sant Pere de Reus, where four people were participating in a community baptism. One explained how catechesis had allowed him to complete one half of himself, and a woman spoke to us about the inner strength she felt to live the Church. The piece lacked informational distance: what reasons explain this supposed boom in Catalonia. This must be done because public television must be clear about its criteria for managing religious beliefs. In the Telenotícies certain discourses cannot be disguised as simple human experience. But the most surprising thing is that the catechumens' report was prioritized over the summary of the Pujol case, Salvador Illa's institutional trip to California, and the budget negotiations. Unheard of. Eurovision, the prison for Dino Marcelo, and the 327 catechumens of 2026 ahead of Catalan politics. The news is increasingly being contaminated by digital experience and emotional consumption. Ayuso is the state's Trump, the omnipresent figure who functions as an element of tension in any news report. Eurovision has very exuberant images and an inevitable political background, but it should not be turned into a first-rate international conflict, losing sight of the musical spectacle.Bangaranga, the title of the winning song at Eurovision, in Creole language means chaos or mess. A very fitting word to define the scale of priorities of Telenotícies. A bangaranga criterion that reflects the journalistic crisis of our days.

The CRIT Awards, which recognize and promote digital audiovisual projects in Catalan, celebrated their second edition yesterday at the Teatre Coliseum in Barcelona. Presented by Núria Marín, a total of 14 projects were recognized at the gala, with an attendance of 1,200 professionals and creators, including producers, journalists, and members of the Catalan audiovisual industry. This year's edition highlights the highest recognition for best creator of the year, which went to Laura Grau, and the podcast Guarres!, whose characters were interviewed by l'ARA a few weeks ago, as the best independent project.

The search for love can take many forms. It can be done in a traditional way, through apps, or also through a television program like La gran cita, the dating show from 3Cat. The new format from the public television has innovated by introducing artificial intelligence into the equation to find a partner, but not only that: it is the first reality show in the State to feature the participation of two intimacy coordinators, a figure increasingly common in cinema and series but not present at all in reality television spaces. Aida de Sàgarra, along with Tatiana Barrero, have contributed their experience as intimacy coordinators on La gran cita. "In this type of reality shows what is super necessary and essential is to protect the emotional intimacy of the participants," explains De Sàgarra.

The full season of La gran cita, the dating show that has tested artificial intelligence's ability to predict compatibility between people, is now available on 3Cat. The first three episodes promoted the initial pairings. The following three were used to test these bonds with the intrigue of whether they were the result of human intuition or the algorithm's determination. In this phase, the initial excitement was lost and a heavier inertia, typical of these television psychodramas, set in, where dialogues drift to the boring "I don't know if I'm ready for a relationship", "I've been hurt a lot", "I'm at a point where I want something else", "I don't want to suffer again", "I need an open relationship" and these tiresome vicissitudes, especially when you don't feel a special interest in the protagonists' lives.The game's dynamic, however, is very effective. The AI's verdict tests the bonds. Some couples receive the technology's approval. Others discover they have defied the algorithm and worry about proving that intuition is above what a machine can predict. The strategy shows an interesting phenomenon: the enormous power attributed to AI as an almost infallible guarantee when choosing a partner. The will to contradict it becomes epic, a daring act. Even the loss of an opportunity that you might only have once in a lifetime.The last two chapters regain the delicious intrigue of the start. The third people recommended by the algorithm appear. Also the risk of deciding if the relationships will continue beyond the cameras.Fortunately, the program has protected Dulceida by dispensing her presence drop by drop. The need to condense the stories of so many people into eight chapters causes the viewer a certain disorientation when it comes to understanding how much time has passed for the contestants and, above all, details of their relationship with other participants. But these ellipses are also appreciated, because they save us a lot of emotional junk that would turn La gran cita into a soap opera. The great virtue and good tolerance of the reality lie in the capacity for synthesis when managing dramas and tensions.The protagonists are well trained in displaying their faith in the game's dynamics. They issue pronouncements of hope and gratitude in the exact measure the show requires. In the final messages between couples, the writers' hand is sensed. The visual dynamic to explain the outcome of each relationship is visually exciting. And the result reveals a suspicious balance between the power of AI and romantic love. The big date works because it stimulates the enjoyment of the most elemental voyeurism without causing secondhand embarrassment.

This Thursday, all news programs echoed the video by Vito Quiles, the far-right stalker who pursues and attacks people to turn it into propaganda. Public and private channels followed suit. This time, the images had gained relevance because the victim was Begoña Gómez, President Pedro Sánchez's wife. The premeditated violence of the sequence, recorded on mobile and edited by the agitator, provided the spectacularity that television often uses as a criterion for including events in its agenda.