Page 75 - rsc_eng

Corporate Responsibility 2010

75

the situation of persons who, unemployed and without money, sink into despair. Some of these same people have actually even contacted our Newsroom and in certain cases, the highlighting of their plight by the media has helped them to obtain assistance.

Yet the economic downturn cannot explain the steady increase in gender-based violence which we saw in 2010. It was a terrible year, with 73 women murdered by either their partners or their former partners. Telecinco dealt with each of these cases individually, avoiding all sensationalism. Telecinco places its emphasis on the condemnation of gender-based violence, on encouraging victims to report their plight and, where appropriate, on showing how the perpetrators of these crimes are punished.

Our news teamincludes specialist journalists and this enables us to establish our own agenda and to address the issues of greatest impact without having to depend exclusively on the general press conferences agenda. This is particularly true in the area of health, where we have been able to cover the breakthroughs made in the feld

of Bio-medicine in 2010: the fght against breast cancer and the testing of a vaccine which it is hoped will prevent the development of tumours. We have also reported on the revolutionary face transplants which have been carried out and on the dangers of obesity among young people.

Neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimers, multiple sclerosis): the breakthroughs being made and precautions being taken in the relation to the use of stem cells have also been reported by Informativos Telecinco.

A large part of Informativos Telecinco’s reporting time in 2010 has focused on the process of enactment of two laws with a major news and social impact: the Law on Sexual and Reproductive Health and on the Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy (which has been the subject of much debate since 2009), and the Law on the Prevention of Tobacco Addiction. In both cases, the information has been reported from all relevant angles: political, religious and social, and the people involved have been given the opportunity to express their views; this has included reporters going out onto the streets to gauge people’s reactions.