Sunday's large demonstration in Barcelona calling for the liberation of the Catalan political prisoners has received considerable coverage in the international media. The first to respond were, naturally, the news agencies, although among television coverage there were a number of networks who made live connections to show the scale and spirit of the protest.
Among newspapers, UK daily The Guardian and the German liberal newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung quickly published stories on Sunday's march, both commenting on the "hundreds of thousands" of people who took part:
Other newspapers that reported the rally included the populist Journal de Montréal ("Giant demonstration in Barcelona against the arrest of separatists", reads its headline); the respected Dutch daily De Tijd and the German paper Neues Deutschland, closely linked to the ex-communist Die Linke party, which also noted Saturday's demonstrations in the Basque Country for the prisoners held in remand after a bar-fight with off-duty Civil Guards in Altsasu (Navarra). Also, the French centre-left newspaper Libération:
British news agency Reuters reported the march in both its English and Spanish versions, with the latter highlighting the slogans "Freedom for political prisoners" and "Enough hostages" and the chants of "Puigdemont is our president".
The US-based Associated Press agency points out that among the organizers of the march were “Spain's two leading labour unions” in spite of the "complaints from some members who don’t want secession for Catalonia”. The report quotes the secretary general of the UGT-Catalonia union, Camil Ros: “The majority of Catalans, regardless of their political position, agree that pre-trial jail is not justified. As unions, we are asking for dialogue”. It also comments that the independence movement has "plunged Spain into its deepest institutional crisis in decades”.
The AP story is the basis for articles published by the majority of North American newspapers and some British media, like the UK tabloid Daily Mail:
French agency AFP, in line with its usual practice, offers numerous quotes from people taking part in the protest. A voter for the pro-independence ERC, Àlex de Ferrer, aged 50, is quoted as saying: "Imprisoning separatist leaders only manufactures separatists". Juan José Cabrero, retired truck driver aged 74, is said to be angry: "I have taken part in all demonstrations and have never seen even the slightest violence, except that of the police when they disrupted the referendum".
Ansa, the main Italian agency, reports statements made by the speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, for whom “the demonstration is a show of unity in defence of our rights, in the face of the threat to freedom”.
The story filed by German agency DPA has been reproduced by, among others, the influential German weekly Der Spiegel with the headline "Hundreds of thousands of separatists demand the liberation of their leaders".
Television coverage
Among TV broadcasters, the network which gave most attention to the rally was Al Jazeera, the main TV news channel in the Arab world. The broadcaster connected live to Barcelona at different points during the protest, both with its English-language channel and its main channel, in Arabic. In its news broadcast at 2pm, the Barcelona demonstration was the second story, after the missile attack on Syria. The demonstration was broadcast live on Al Jazeera's YouTube channels.
Translation of Spanish: Al Jazeera's international channel, which reaches 270 million homes around the world, offers the live transmission from Barcelona and connects with its correspondent to follow the demonstration. — Juan Miguel Garrido
Russian network channel RT also broadcast the protest live, via Twitter, viewable on its website.
Other television stations also reported the demonstration. Among them were Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Singapore-based 24-hour news channel and agency, which broadcasts in 28 territories across Asia, the Middle East and Australia, and is one of the most influential in the region. Coverage was also given on Tg24, the news channel for Mediaset, the leading Italian audiovisual group, property of Sílvio Berlusconi.
The German public radio network Deutschlandfunk dedicated time in its bulletins and space on its website to the march, and ARD, the public television broadcaster in the same country, covered the Barcelona event in its news programmes. German private network ZDF also did so:
Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona for the release of nine Catalan independence movement leaders. — ZDF heute
French public network TV5Monde, which broadcasts to Francophone countries, especially in Africa, headlines its website story: "Barcelona: Catalans protest against the arrest of separatists". A similar line is taken by another French public channel, France24, which bases its story on the AFP agency's report.
The coverage by Spanish public TV broadcaster TVE has received some criticism in Catalonia for its persistent use of close ups, preventing viewers from seeing the full magnitude of the demonstration. In line with its usual style, the state-run broadcaster speaks of políticos presos - "imprisoned politicians" (never presos políticos - "political prisoners") and about their "challenge to the law":
Translation: Spanish state television TVE says nothing. Al Jazeera broadcasts it live. No further comment required. - Marc Serra
Translation: It seems that TVE, in cutting from to close-up to close-up has forgotten to add in a few aerial shots. Here's one, since they have forgotten #WeWantThemHome. - Joan Mangues