“El Mundo” defends its distorted information
At approximately 9.30pm on March 13, 2024, publisher Esteban Urreiztieta published in The world the following headline: “The Prosecutor’s Office offers Ayuso’s partner a deal to admit two tax crimes during criminal proceedings”; and the following subtitle: “He made his proposal to Alberto González Amador just two hours after the case broke.” In reality, it was González Amador’s defense that offered the agreement to the Prosecutor’s Office and had done so more than a month earlier, on February 2, 2024, through an email that the lawyer Carlos Neira had sent to the public prosecutor Julián Salto.
During his statement this Wednesday, to defend his title, Urreiztieta said he had access to a e-mail of March 12 from Salto to Neira and relied on some words from that email in which Salto said “we can reach an agreement if you and your client believe it is possible”. “This for us is absolutely an offer, an invitation to reach an agreement (…) We can argue from a semantic point of view, but it is a public prosecutor who encourages a taxpayer to reach a compliance agreement”, argued the director of The world; who ignored, however, some words which in Salto’s sentence precede those reproduced by Urreiztieta. The exact phrase of the prosecutor was: “Although other people have also been reported, this will not be an obstacle to reaching an agreement if you and your client deem it possible.”
—Did you try to conflict with the Prosecutor’s Office? – the representative of the public prosecutor asked him.
—I use my professional rights, but all elements contained in the information have been verified—said the editor of The world.
Mar Hedo, press chief for the state Attorney General’s Office, said Tuesday that Urreiztieta did not call her that night. Before the publication of The worldMiguel Ángel Rodríguez had spread the lie for hours according to which the Prosecutor’s Office had offered a deal to González Amador and that he had withdrawn it due to “orders from above”.
