Catalan public TV channels will be watched in Catalan-speaking part of Aragon

Barcelona (ACN).- The Governments of Catalonia and Aragon have made an agreement to broadcast Catalan public TV channels in the Catalan-speaking region of eastern Aragon, La Franja de Ponent. This agreement guarantees regular and continuous broadcasts from the Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Mediums (CCMA) and the Aragonese Corporation of Radio and Television in determined zones. The agreement, which was made public this Tuesday, was signed by the Catalan Minister for Culture and Communication, Joan Manuel Tresserras, and the Minister to the Presidency of the Aragonese Government, Javier Velasco.

The agreement will be in effect for 4 years and will be developed through another agreement between the 2 broadcasting corporations. It will establish a mixed commission to follow the developments of the agreement through representatives from both governments. This commission will have the power to expand the agreement in terms of coverage. The regular broadcast of TV3, the main Catalan TV channel, in La Franja de Ponent will begin in the next few months, as first local emission centres must be digitised. Viewers can currently tune in to Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Mediums channels in the Balearic Island and Andorra as similar agreements between local governments were made in the regions. However, many problems exist in València, where the Conservative and Spanish Nationalist People’s Party (PP) in power puts constant impediments.

With this new agreement, the Catalan Government will have helped to broadcast Catalan Corporation of Audiovisual Mediums channels in all Catalan-speaking territories will the exception of València. According to the Catalan Government’s Secretary for Audiovisual Media, Carles Mundó, “it has not yet been possible because of political reasons within their government”. He says that this type of agreement needs the cooperation of both governments. In the case of Aragon, a large factor in the initiation of the agreement was the community’s will to develop their recently approved Language Law that aims to provide Catalan media to the Aragonese regions that speak Catalan such as La Franja. In the case of Catalonia, the Catalan Government and the CCMA wished to expand Catalan broadcasts to all Catalan-speaking territories.