Libertad de expresión e intervención estatal en la radiodifusión española de la primera mitad del siglo XX

Abstract

The porpoise of this doctoral dissertation is to analyze the relationship between freedom of speech and government intervention in the Spanish radio and television during the first half of the 20th Century. The approach we decided focus on the consequences derived of the adopted juridical measures, specifically in the consolidation of the new status of the radio and television in the Spanish society. The transversal nature of the study has allowed us to complete the main juridical aspects with the implications in the broadcasting in general, including content control, censorship and ideological orientation. The action of the public authorities over the Spanish broadcasting has been always there, no matter the government political filiation. A profound distrust in the influence of the mass media on society had as a consequence an over control with the apparition of new instruments that constrict the speech freedom. By the end of the period covered in this dissertation, with the Franco government already consolidated, the available means the Ministry had and the set of regulations established, make quite impossible any broadcast emission uncontrolled. The studied now presented shows how the Law, sometimes, is used against the Freedom, although, before make a judgement, the historical evolution and the nature of the Spanish society must be taken into account.