The role of the Spanish media in relation to territorial integrity and autonomy over the Sahara

Speech by Ignacio Ortiz, vice-president of Fórum Canario Saharaui, at the "I Encuentro sobre medios y sociedad" held on 24, 25 and 26 February in the city of Laayoune (Morocco). Organised by the Moroccan Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FMEJ), the conference was entitled "The natural neighbourhood and promising prospects between Morocco and Spain". 

I was asked to speak about the role of the media in Spain, in relation to the treatment of information on the Sahara issue in general, the autonomy of the territory and other related issues. Although I do not have a journalistic background as such, since I am a political scientist by training, as a connoisseur of this issue and also as a contributor to various media on this subject, I will try to give my point of view as far as possible from another perspective. This point of view could be perfectly extrapolated to other spheres such as politics or academia, but since the subject of these conferences was the media, I will focus on it more specifically. 

In Spain, traditionally, a large majority of the media have aligned themselves with and assimilated the Polisario's theses as absolute truths with an unheard-of dogmatism. They have done so with practically no fissures or the slightest hint of criticism towards a group and leaders who have accumulated innumerable motives and criminal acts that should have been denounced for decades, all of which have been ignored in the Spanish media for various reasons: From certain ideological positions or aversions to our dear Moroccan neighbour (which we will discuss below), and also, why not say it, certain doses of ignorance in the treatment of this issue, and also a Polisario communication and staging strategy, based on victimhood, which managed to take root and be relatively successful in our country. 

This also contributed to the fact that, until 2021, the treatment of this issue, as a general rule and with few exceptions, was fairly residual in Spain, neither grabbing the headlines nor opening the news. It has not been a top issue on the agenda of the Spanish media. And, despite the common past that unites us, it must be acknowledged that there was (and is) more widespread ignorance of this issue in Spanish public opinion than would be desirable. And, why not say it, there is also a lack of knowledge and/or confusion about the history and development of this issue since 1975, as well as about the role of the parties involved, where there is a systematic fixation on portraying some as bad and others as good. This is a convenient narrative that fits in with portraying Morocco as a scheming enemy and Polisario as the scapegoat.  

Indeed, Polisario has long been able to install a narrative in public opinion, especially in Spain, using over the years the disguise of victimhood that in reality corresponds to the population it claims to represent, a disguise that has also helped it to distort the origins and evolution of the conflict and to install a distorted historical narrative in Spain through its relationship with the media. Let it be clear, its leaders are not victims, if anything they are executioners, and in this illicit association between Polisario and victimhood, in this game of confusion, the leaders of this group settled comfortably, knowing how to export this message to the point that, by repeating a lie a thousand times, they ended up turning it into truth. And the moment has come when they have managed to make many people outside Morocco unconsciously confuse the Sahrawi population (the one that suffers) with the Polisario (the one that lives well, governs with an iron fist and even makes people suffer). Although the way in which this narrative reaches people differs depending on the disseminator of the message or its editorial line. Let me explain. 

On the one hand, we have the media with a progressive or traditionally left-wing editorial line (and by extension their consumers), who have always given them support and a media loudspeaker. This was originally due to the affinity they had with the Polisario in its beginnings, when they embraced Marxism-Leninism, and because of the romantic nature of the national liberation movements of the time and the supposed egalitarian society they promised. 

As is well known, true to his pan-Arabist dreams, Gaddafi encouraged, financed and, of course, armed Polisario at its inception. He turned them into an armed band fighting for a fake or artificial independence, but one that was interesting to the Spanish left, which saw in it a reflection of their yearnings, even though they were in ignorance as to who many of these Polisario pioneers were or where they came from, or whether they represented anyone within the Sahrawi social structure within the confines of the then Spanish colony. And then came Algeria, then considered by the left and its European and Spanish opinion leaders as a progressive country embarked on a multi-level revolution. This is when the Spanish left linked this revolutionary romanticism in support of Algeria and the Polisario with its struggle against the remnants of the recently ended Francoism. 

All this was most convenient for the rhetoric of some Spanish media and opinion leaders on the Western Sahara issue. And by extension for the establishment of the Polisario's victimhood narrative to which I referred earlier. This approach has remained unchanged over the years. For that left, and its media arm, Polisario has not done and will never do anything wrong, that is not even considered. Nor do they question what happens in the camps, if any abuses are committed, if human rights are respected or if they are subject to any kind of accountability. No, because for them everything bad that happens on this issue comes from Morocco. It is an absolutely sectarian militancy. 

Parallel to these, we find support from the various independence movements and peripheral nationalisms that we have in Spain, especially in the cases of the Basque Country, Catalonia and, of course, the Canary Islands. These act in the same way as the previous ones, in addition to the affinity that comes from their shared desire for independence. 

On the other hand, we find a right-wing media that (with honourable exceptions), from a prism of a certain nationalist exaltation, promote polemic and exude aversion towards anything that entails rapprochement with Morocco. They are those friends of the "the worse the better" towards everything Moroccan. They are the same people who for this reason also avoid speaking out on the Sahara question in favour of a peaceful solution such as autonomy, tiptoeing around the issue or directly taking a stance against it, even if this indirectly entails tacit support for the Polisario's thesis. It seems that in this case they forget the latter's links and friendships with international social-communism, represented for example by Cuba and Venezuela, which they are so fond of recalling on other issues. A detestable double standard. 

One would have to go much deeper to understand the attitude of these conservative media and opinion-makers, who prefer permanent tension between our countries to collaboration and good neighbourly relations. The reflection of this media sector sometimes suffers from a certain dose of nostalgia, colonial arrogance and a corresponding anti-Moroccanism that is deeply rooted in their subconscious, as if it were an ancestral inheritance. Something that, logically, is also reflected in a good part of the consumers of these media. 

And then, finally, there are those Spanish journalists who publish and make a living from this subject. To some extent they tend to be the loudest, the most radical and militant, but also the most biased when it comes to any kind of Sahara-related information, publishing with unusual frequency. They are a motley bunch, some claim to be freelancers, others boast of having worked as correspondents in the Maghreb, but their common denominator is that they "shoot with a bullet" at the stroke of a pen, without the need to check any kind of information. They are those who live obsessed with people or entities like ours who, from our position, have supported (and will continue to do so) the Autonomy proposal from our media loudspeaker. And for this reason, they often punish us with the most scurrilous lies. 

These people live in the permanent obsession or conspiracy theory that we are part of some kind of secret society that works for Morocco, when all we do is to do our bit for this wonderful land to have its deserved autonomy materialised, family reunification, and the definitive social progression that ends the nightmare that is lived in Tindouf and the false story of the Polisario referred to above. I do not think it is necessary at this point to name the names of these people, but in view of their way of proceeding and working, where professional ethics and integrity are conspicuous by their absence, it would not be surprising if what they accuse us of is what they, surreptitiously, do. I refer to the facts (or rather to the incessant one-way publications or information). 

Therefore, and in relation to the above, it is difficult for any theory or message to penetrate in Spain in which the Polisario does not always have all the sympathies and is not protected. There are only a few of us, almost counted on the fingers of one hand, who have been fighting for many years against this narrative through our work in the media, seeking a small space in a country that neither wants nor is accustomed to a discourse contrary to the one we propose in our articles, either by supporting Morocco in its proposal for autonomy, or by denouncing the abuses and criminal acts committed by the corrupt Polisario leaders. As I said before, there are only a few of us who have been embarking on this journey in search of a real and feasible solution to this issue for some time, so we believe we have a vital role to play. 

At a time when fake news and disinformation are proliferating due to the supplanting role of social networks in the transmission of information, responsible, balanced and honest journalism is more necessary than ever. Something that, unfortunately, and with regard to this issue that concerns us, is not very abundant. We try to approach this issue with rigour and arguments, we do so from the conviction that it is the best thing for this land that we love so much. Therefore, we do it from the heart. 

The Spanish government's decision on 18 March 2022 to recognise the Moroccan proposal on Western Sahara and to declare that the Autonomy Plan put forward by Morocco is credible and a solid basis for a solution to this dispute has stirred up a large majority of opinion-makers and the media in Spain. They are the same ones who months earlier were enthusiastic when the tension between Spain and Morocco was at its peak before, especially in the wake of the illegal entry into Spain of Ghali, Benbatouche or whatever he is called. One might ask how it is possible that these media gurus continue time and again to embark on the journey to nowhere that the continued existence of the Tindouf camps and the suffering of thousands of people entails, to the detriment of a win-win solution for the Sahara. 

We believe that our contribution in the media is a good antidote, not only against this kind of fanatical and flaming discourse, but it is the best and most hopeful thing we can give, those of us who fight through our words, to the future generations of Moroccan Saharawis who aspire to a lasting solution and definitive stability in a world plagued by war, strife and terror. I believe they deserve it and it is high time they got it. Almost half a century is more than enough. 

Ignacio Ortiz, vice-president of Fórum Canario Saharaui