Antonio García Ferreras wanted to deny that there was an echo in the program ‘Al Rojo Vivo’ on La Sexta of information from ok diary about a supposed bank account of Pablo Iglesias in the Grenadine Islands, knowing that it was false. But the truth is that he did know that this information was a hoax.
First, because the audios published yesterday by the media show it Global Chronicle that reveal the conversation that Ferreras had at a meal held in 2016 with the retired commissioner about information published by Eduardo Inda, attributing Pablo Iglesias the ownership of a fake account in the tax haven of the Grenadineswhere the talk show host claimed that he sheltered 272,000 euros that the then leader of Podemos would have collected from the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro.
At the table were seated, in addition to Villarejo, the director of Atresmedia, Mauricio Casalsbusinessman Adrian de la Joya and the also commissioner Jose Luis Olivera Serrano. In these audios, Ferreras asks Villarejo “who has put the bacalada on him?”, in reference to the information that Inda transfers to him. To this, the retired commissioner affirms that it was Eugenio Pino, then Deputy Director of Operations (DAO) of the Police.
The presenter of La Sexta responds: “I told him: Eduardo, this is very serious, I’m going with it, but this is very delicate and it’s too crude.” and adds: “Now, I do not think that Pablo Iglesias will open an account in the Grenadines in his name, two surnames, so that Maduro, the day that Podemos registers, sends him two hundred thousand euros, damn they are much smarter than everything it’s”.
And second, because Pablo Iglesias himself has recalled this Monday that Ferreras called him that day to intervene on his program to give his version of the alleged news. At that moment, the former leader of Podemos already told him that this bank account was completely false. Despite everything, Ferreras decided to broadcast the news on his program instead of checking if it was true and now He hides behind the fact that all they did was say that “it was an alleged account” and that they quoted the medium in question.
Ferreras: “We have never given false information knowing that it is, neither that of the Grenadines nor any other”
This Monday he started his program denying the greatest despite the evidence: “We have never given false information knowing that it is, neither that of the Grenadines nor any other, neither about Podemos nor about anyone.” “The first thing we did was call Iglesias. Of course it seemed strange and even crude, as we said, but the Police said that he had that paper and that he was investigating it,” he continued to stress that “when we learned that this account was not It was real, it was when we said well we shouldn’t do anything, but then we didn’t know.”
It must be remembered that the information to which they refer was denied by the Government of Venezuela and by Euro Pacific Bank, the bank where it was claimed that the account falsely attributed to Iglesias would have been opened. In addition, the journalist who signed the news accused the commentator of having manipulated what was previously written by him without his authorization, a fact for which he later resigned. Even Eduardo Pino, who came to recognize in court that he is a friend of the director of Ok Diario, exposed Inda.
In its day, La Sexta not only quoted ok diary to give coverage to said information, as Ferreras assures. She also put labels on connections with Inda that he claimed as his own.
Ferreras has argued that it was later when they met with Villarejo to continue with that investigation: “Within that investigation, a posteriori, we came to Villarejo as the man who was supposedly behind those documents.”It was LaSexta’s first meeting with the commissionerthe conversation was recorded and he is the one who tells us that he does not give credibility to those papers and that those papers are held by the DAO of the Police.
To defend himself, the presenter of ‘Al Rojo Vivo’ has assured that “La Sexta has always been very critical of all this type of information, such as the PISA report or the invented connection between ETA and Podemos. It is a truth like a temple that there was an operation against Podemos, but from La Sexta what we did was resist that operation in real time, but we have also learned to do better for the next time”.
Iglesias responds emphatically to Ferreras
Ferreras’ response has been harshly criticized by the former leader of Podemos and former Vice President of the Government Pablo Iglesias immediately. Iglesias, in an intervention on Rac1, has acknowledged that Ferreras called him that day to intervene in the program and at that time He already told you that bank account was completely false.
“What Ferreras is saying is extremely serious. That day Ferreras called me and it was clear that this information was a hoax and I told him so. I told: Antonio, do you really believe that I have an account in Las Granadillas in the name of my mother and that Nicolás Maduro deposits money in that account? And I said: Well obviously not but I’m going to give it. And my job as a journalist is to give you the floor to tell your version“.
“That’s a lie, that’s rubbish. Journalism is not giving false information and giving everyone the floor. Journalism is checking if information is real,” added Iglesias in a visibly angry tone.
The former leader of Podemos has continued saying: “I asked Ferreras whose information it was. And he told me that he couldn’t tell me. How can you not tell me? You have information that a crime has been committed making a dossier and the only thing you come here is to defend your friend Villarejo and tell me that it is other people who have that data but that I am not going to tell you. Is that journalism? Or is that covering up crimes?“
Iglesias: “What we are seeing today is the greatest degradation of journalism that exists in Spain. Ferreras can no longer be fixed”
“What we are seeing today is the greatest degradation of journalism that exists in Spain. Ferreras can no longer be fixed. The problem is all those who are sitting around him and who, in exchange for a modest price, are whitewashing someone who has publicly said that he knew who the authors of those false reports were but did not tell me. It is very serious“, Iglesias has finished.
The news of the Ferreras and Villarejo audios have provoked a multitude of political reactions. From Podemos they consider that this demonstrates the existence in Spain of “an anti-democratic alliance to destroy” the purple formation and to “try to influence the electoral result.” “PP businessmen ordered the fabrication of false evidence, corrupt police officers like Villarejo carried out the orders, and journalists who do not deserve to be called journalists, like Ferreras, published it,” explained the spokeswoman for the formation María Teresa Pérez in relation to what she has described of “anti-democratic alliance”.
But also from the world of journalism there are voices that have wanted to call attention to this revelation. This Monday, Angels Barceló, presenter of the program ‘Hoy por hoy’ on Cadena SER, assured that “our profession needs a catharsis, we are also responsible for the democratic deterioration of this country”.
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