Elvira Rodriguez, president of Spain’s Securities Commission, noted in a speech to company directors in Madrid on Tuesday that the economic crisis “has revealed weaknesses in the system of corporate governance.” Possibly a candidate for understatement of the year. Ms Rodriguez commented, among other things, on the lack of transparency which preceded the difficulties at Bankia and at Pescanova, the fishing conglomerate. She said that Pescanova was a company that had enjoyed a positive reputation and whose management were known for their wholehearted commitment, which bamboozled the supervisory authorities. These sterling qualities also offered a somewhat distorted impression to … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Profitability and protection
the sun
Here comes the sun
Silly season divides Spanish and English-speaking media
It’s August: the silly season. The month when newspapers and the media in general have little real news to cover, so they pay even more attention to B-list celebrity love triangles, local politicians’ sex-changes and garbage collectors’ concerns about being suspected of being paedophiles. That’s in Britain, at least (all those stories featured in The Sun on August 11). For the summer months illustrate better than any other the gulf dividing the Spanish media and its English-speaking counterparts. The summer holiday period is observed by Spain perhaps more assiduously than any other European country. Many bars, shops and other businesses shut down for most of August as ordinary … [Read more...] about Silly season divides Spanish and English-speaking media
Falklands commentators wage virtual war
In his account of the Falklands War and its build-up, The Land that Lost its Heroes, Jimmy Burns wrote: “In a sense it was the last war of modern times not subject to immediate scrutiny. The concept of twenty-four-hour news and Internet-based ‘real time’ was yet to come.” Twenty-eight years after the conflict, as tensions between Buenos Aires and London rise once again following the British decision to start drilling for oil in waters around the small Atlantic islands, news, real-time and otherwise, rages, with the media voicing the opinions not just of its columnists and editorial boards, but also readers and citizen journalists. What’s more, with the click of a mouse, a journalist in … [Read more...] about Falklands commentators wage virtual war