Telemadrid
198px
Launched	May 2, 1989
Owned by	Radio Televisión Madrid
Country	Spain
Broadcast area	Community of Madrid
Headquarters	Ciudad de la Imagen, Pozuelo de Alarcón
Sister channel(s)	LaOtra
Website	http://www.telemadrid.es
Availability
Terrestrial
DTTV	Channel 63
Cable
ONO
Satellite radio
Digital+	Channel 91
IPTV
Imagenio

Telemadrid is the first autonomous public television station of Madrid and the fifth national station, after those of Catalonia, Euskadi, Galicia and Andalusia. It is affiliated with FORTA since its inception, and it is a public channel that belongs exclusively to the autonomous government of Madrid. It began its broadcast on May 2, 1989, in Madrid. Since then, the programming has been dominated by educational programs directed towards the population of that region. Since Madrid is the capital of the country, it puts special emphasis on national political information.

First years[link]

Telemadrid was created by the PSOE government (Spanish Socialist Party) when Joquin Leguina was the president of the Madrid Autonomous Region. During its first years, Telemadrid occupied the buildings of the Agencia EFE, where it suffered a terrorist attack from the terrorist group at lunchtime of May 29, 1993 GRAPO, yet suffered no victims. In fact, the event was covered live on Telemadrid. On March 11, 1997, they celebrated the opening of their current location, in the Ciudad de la Imagen, in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid. The building, which was called "special interest" on World Architecture Day in October 1997, holds all of the production centers for the radio-television entity.

The programming of Telemadrid has always revolved around the lives of madrileños, focusing on information, sports, children's programming, series and movies and politics. Some of their shows have been exported to other autonomous regional television stations, and even to other national television stations like "Buenos días, Madrid" or "Madrid Directo". During its lifetime, it has featured such shows as "La banda de Telemadrid", "Cyberclub", "Top Madrid", "Todo Madrid", "Gran Vía", "Fútbol es fútbol", and "En acción". Currently, the lineup of the station is made up of more than eight hours of information in many different formats: "Telenoticias", "Círculo a primera hora", "Alto y claro", "Diario de la noche", "Sucedió en Madrid", "En pleno Madrid", "Mi cámara y yo" y "Telenoticias sin fronteras". In addition, the station, has always broadcast sports ("En acción", "Madrid se mueve", "Fútbol es fútbol" and the national league - until 2006) and it has broadcast bullfighting programs and information.

The digital era[link]

The year 2001 marked a turning point in the history of the Ente Público Empresarial. Telemadrid became the first autonomous television station to utilize Digital terrestrial television (DTT). After a year in tests, on March 19, 2001, the President of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, inaugurated the broadcast of laOtra, a second autonomous channel exclusively for the DTT system. During its first years it focused on programs of cultural content, suggesting a new model of television with new formats, focused on music, literature, art, and modern sociopolitical movements. The principal programs were "Básico", "Central de sonidos", "Traslucúa", "De formas", "Otras entrevista", "Otra gente", "Uno más" and "La vieja ceremonia", among others.

Nevertheless, this second channel suffered a restructuring in 2006, when it began broadcasting in analog format. Since then, the old content of laOtra began to share airtime with reruns of the primary channel and with newscasts, sports, and children's shows. The analog broadcasting set the national and autonomous administrations at odds on several occasions, since laOtra began its analog broadcast without the permission of Spain's Ministry of Industry, who oversees the allocation of broadcast frequencies, and to whom the station had gone on previous occasions to obtain a license. The broadcast emissions were found to have originated from the facilities of a water company, Canal de Isabel Segunda, politically linked to the Community of Madrid. As of September 2006, Telemadrid' faces a fine of one million euros and the cancellation of laOtra if in fact it is considered just under Spanish law.

Many believe that this sanction hurts the Madrileños when compared with the citizens of other autonomous communities who already have two channels broadcast in analog format, like Euskadi, Andalusia, Valencia, or the Canary Islands, and even three, as in the case of Catalonia. Others by contrast believe that Telemadrid did not follow appropriate procedure and that consequently it should accept the closure of the channel.

Criticism and controversy[link]

Telemadrid is the public broadcaster of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, meaning it is funded by the regional government of Madrid. Since the arrival of Esperanza Aguirre as the President of Madrid on October 17, 2003, many people have accused Aguirre of transforming Telemadrid into the mouthpiece of her party, the ruling party of Madrid, the Partido Popular (PP). When Aguirre came to power, she hired Manuel Soriano to become the general director of Telemadrid. Soriano is a member of the PP and worked as press secretary of Aguirre when she was the Minister of Education and Culture during government of José María Aznar.

Telemadrid's news broadcasts often express views critical of the current Prime Minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and his party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).

Telemadrid caused another big controversy in April 2007, when it aired a documentary called "Ciudadanos de segunda" (Second-class Citizens), which claimed that the Spanish language and the people who speak it were being persecuted in Catalonia in favor of the Catalan Language. This documentary caused outrage in Catalonia's political spheres. Josep Piqué, the leader of the Catalan branch of the Pardido Popular, said that the documentary didn't represent the reality of Catalonia. Meanwhile, the independentist Catalonian party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya demanded that the Generalitat de Catalunya respond to Telemadrid judicially, to no avail.^[1][2] Spanish nationalist Catalonian political parties such as Ciutadans de Catalunya, however, stated that the documentary reflected was largely accurate.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Telemadrid Official web
• laOtra official web
• FORTA official web
• Comunidad de Madrid official web
• Salvemos Telemadrid - a website created by the employees of Telemadrid, fighting for the impartiality of the network

The Most Excellent The Countess of Murillo GE, DBE
3rd President of Madrid
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 October 2003
Monarch	Juan Carlos I
Preceded by	Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón
President of the Spanish Senate
In office 9 February 1999 – 16 October 2002
Preceded by	Juan Ignacio Barrero
Succeeded by	Juan José Lucas
Personal details
Born	Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma (1952-01-03) 3 January 1952 (age 60) Madrid, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Political party	People's Party
Other political affiliations	Liberal Party People's Alliance
Spouse(s)	Fernando Ramírez de Haro, 15th Count of Murillo
Children	Fernando Ramírez de Haro, 10th Marquis of Villanueva del Duero Álvaro, 16th Count of Villariezo
Alma mater	Complutense University
Profession	Civil Servant
Website	www.esperanzaaguirre.org

Esperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma, Countess of Murillo, Grandee of Spain, DBE (born 3 January 1952) is a Spanish politician and the current President of Madrid. She is President of Madrid's People's Party and the first female politician to have held the office of President of the Senate and Minister of Education and Culture in Spanish democratic history.

Aguirre is a former member of Unión Liberal, Partido Liberal and Popular Alliance, which changed its name to Partido Popular (People's Party) in 1989. Since her early years she has been a member of the Club Liberal of Madrid, which was presided over by an economics professor at the Complutense University, Pedro Schwartz.^{[citation needed]} Schwartz reportedly played an important role in the beginnings of Aguirre's political career: in 1983, he was the one to convince her, by then a civil servant, to stand in the Madrid local elections of that year for Schwartz's Liberal Union and become a councilwoman.^[1]

Early years (1952-1974)[link]

Aguirre was born in Madrid into a family Spanish nobility, being the eldest daughter of José Luis Aguirre Borrell, a lawyer, and Piedad Gil de Biedma y Vega de Seoane, daughter of José Gil de Biedma, 3rd Count of Sepúlveda. She is a niece of the late Catalan poet, Jaime Gil de Biedma. She studied in the "La Asunción" School and in the British Council School of Madrid and earned a degree in Law in Complutense University (Madrid) in 1974. She is fluent in English and French.

Administrative career (1974-1982)[link]

Aguirre joined the Technical Division of the Ministry of Information and Tourism as a civil servant in 1976. She was head of the Department of Publicity and Tourism, where she remained until 1979. Subsequently, she had many different jobs in the Ministry of Culture, serving several Ministers during the Democratic Centre Union governments; especially designated by the Prime Minister himself. In 1979, she was chief of staff of the General Director of Literature and Cinematography. She was appointed Deputy General Director of Studies of the Technical General Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture in 1980. In 1981, she was appointed Deputy General Director in the Advisory Staff of the Secretary of State of Culture. Her last position with the Administration was as Deputy General Director of Cultural Associations.

Councillor of Madrid (1983-1996)[link]

Esperanza Aguirre first became a councillor with the defunct Coalición Popular, in which she was a member of the smaller Unión Liberal. Between 1983 and 1986 she held a seat on Madrid City Council as a member of Coalición Popular. While in opposition, she was a member of the Standing Committee of the City Council, a CP spokeswoman on the areas of Culture, Education, Youth and Sports Affairs, and the Moncloa district. When Unión Liberal merged with Partido Liberal, in December 1984, she held different positions in the National Executive and the Political Council of José Antonio Segurado's Partido Liberal.

In 1987 she left the Partido Liberal and joined Popular Alliance, which later became the People's Party. She was subsequently re-elected to the city council and continued in opposition until 1989, when a successful vote of no confidence ousted the socialist mayor Juan Barranco, which allowed the People's Party and Democratic and Social Centre to govern Madrid for the first time since the restoration of democracy in 1977. In the new local executive, she was designated head of the Department of the Environment.

In 1991, under José María Álvarez del Manzano, the People's Party won a council majority and Aguirre was again appointed to the Environment Department. Two years later, she was designated as Head of the Culture Department and controlled the areas of Sports, Education and Hygiene. In 1995 she became the spokeswoman of People's Party in Madrid City Council and was appointed by the City Council to the Caja Madrid Board of Governors.

Minister of Education, Culture and Sports (1996-1999)[link]

In the general election of 1996 she was the candidate for the Senate for Madrid of the People's Party, after her designation as a member of the National Executive Committee of the Party; and she became a senator. The then new President, José María Aznar, appointed her to be Minister of Education, Culture and Sports. She was succeeded in those posts in 1999 by Mariano Rajoy. During this period she became very famous because of sense of humour.

President of the Senate (1999-2002)[link]

Aguirre, a Senator since 1996, was elected President of the Senate in February 1999, the first woman to do so. In March 2000, she was re-elected Senator for Madrid, becoming the top-voted candidate in Spain with 1.55 million votes and 50.7% of the popular vote, a percentage record still unbroken.^[2] She resigned in 2002 to run for the Presidency of the Autonomous Community of Madrid in the regional Assembly elections of 2003. She was substituted as President of the Senate by Juan José Lucas.

President of the Community of Madrid (2003-)[link]

Esperanza Aguirre welcoming participants at the 2010 Horasis Global India Business Meeting.

First regional elections of 2003 and the dissenting deputies of PSOE[link]

When the regional elections took place in May 2003, the People's Party won a plurality of seats. The People's Party won 55 seats in the Madrid Assembly, being the only party of the right in the Assembly. On the left, PSOE won 47 seats and United Left won 9 seats, thus making it possible for a coalition of PSOE and IU to rule.

However, the election of a leftist coalition was not possible due to two dissenting deputies of the PSOE, Eduardo Tamayo and María Teresa Sáez, who refused to obey the party whip in the first two votes, the election of the speaker and the election of the president.^{[citation needed]} Most leftist politicians and several media organs accused Tamayo and Sáez of being bribed into breaking party discipline by prominent members of the PP, following accusations that the hotel rooms they were hiding in had been paid for by businessmen from the construction industry with links to the PP.^{[citation needed]} This theory was dismissed after a parliamentary investigation and was never proven.^{[citation needed]}

Esperanza Aguirre during May 2011 regional elections.

Second regional elections of 2003[link]

In October 2003, following the scandal of the dissenting deputies, the regional elections were rerun. The People's Party won a majority of seats, which enabled Aguirre to became President of Madrid.^{[citation needed]}

Aguirre's most important achievements in those years^[when?] were the reduction of surgery waiting times, the building of eight new hospitals and 87 new state schools (most of them bilingual), an increase in the investment for several scholarships of education, and the expansion of the Underground to suburban areas such as Pozuelo de Alarcón.^{[citation needed]}

Damehood[link]

In February 2004, Aguirre was appointed Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She is the first Spanish woman to date to have been awarded this honour.

Mumbai[link]

Aguirre was one of the many civilians trapped in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on 26 November 2008, but she managed to escape unharmed.

Family[link]

Aguirre married in Madrid, on 1 January 1974, Fernando Ramírez de Haro, 15th Count of Murillo, Grandee of Spain, elder son of Ignacio Ramírez de Haro, 15th Count of Bornos, Grandee of Spain, and his wife Beatriz Valdés, 4th Marquise of Casa Valdés. They have two sons:

• Fernando Ramírez de Haro, 10th Marquis of Villanueva del Duero, Grandee of Spain, (b. 23 August 1976).

• Álvaro Ramírez de Haro, 16th Count of Villariezo, (b. 4 April 1980).

Ancestry[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Esperanza Aguirre

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Esperanza Aguirre

• Latest news over Esperanza Aguirre (English)
• Official biography of Esperanza Aguirre (Spanish)
• Helicopter accident on YouTube (Spanish)

v t e List of the current presidents of the autonomous communities of Spain Andalusia: Griñán (PSOE) Aragon: Rudi (PP) Asturias: Fernández (PSOE) Balearic Islands: Bauzà (PP) Basque Country: López (PSOE) Canary Islands: Rivero (CC) Cantabria: Diego (PP) Castile–La Mancha: Cospedal (PP) Castile and León: Herrera (PP) Catalonia: Mas (CiU) Extremadura: Monago (PP) Galicia: Núñez Feijóo (PP) La Rioja: Sanz (PP) Community of Madrid: Aguirre (PP) Region of Murcia: Valcárcel (PP) Navarre: Barcina (UPN) Valencian Community: Fabra (PP) Ceuta:1 Vivas (PP) Melilla:1 Imbroda (PP) 1 Autonomous cities.