Spain

[ES] Judgment of Supreme Court on Use of Catalan by Public Broadcasters

IRIS 2003-2:1/11

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

A Catalan association for the protection of the Spanish language recently appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court, asking that it be declared unconstitutional that the Catalan public television broadcasts almost all of its programmes in Catalan. The appellant argued that Spanish is the official language in all of the national territory and that those persons living in Catalonia who do not speak Catalan were being discriminated against by the Catalan Administration.

The Supreme Court dismissed this appeal, stressing that most of the television channels that are received in Catalonia are broadcast in Spanish, and that given this circumstance, it was reasonable and proportionate that the Catalan authorities adopt measures intended to promote the use of Catalan. The Spanish Constitution declares that the other languages spoken in Spain (Catalan, Galician and Basque) are also official in the respective autonomous communities, and therefore Catalan is the official language of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia together with Spanish. The Supreme Court stressed that the Spanish Constitution clearly mandates the public authorities to promote the use of all of the official languages of Spain.