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Government Organs


The Corporation structures itself into three organs: the Governing Council and its President; the Director-General; and the Advisory Council for Content and Programmes.


  • Governing Council

    The Governing Council is the highest organ of government and administration of the CCMA. It is made up of 12 members, chosen from a list of candidates with the relevant professional merits. The list is forwarded to the Catalan Broadcasting Authority (Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya, CAC) by Parliament. The CAC then elaborates a report concerning the suitability of those candidates, which is returned to Parliament. The Councillors are finally elected by a two-thirds majority of the Chamber.

    The Council holds at least four ordinary meetings a month, as well as in urgent cases at the discretion of the President, or when a third of its members request it. The agreements of the Council are adopted by simple majority, except in those cases in which the Law of the CCMA requires a qualified majority of two thirds.

    The term of office of the members of the Council is of six years. The following are some of their competencies, as described in Article 11 of the Law of the CCMA: to lay down the directives so that the programming fulfils the public service mission entrusted to the Corporation, in accordance with the programme contract, and to approve the preliminary budget, the plan of activities, the annual report, the directives about the broadcasting of advertising, the selection of staff, the salary scale for personnel, and the organisation chart, both of the Corporation and of their companies, respecting equality criteria between men and women.


  • The President

    One of the main functions of the President of the Council is to represent the CCMA in all sorts of public events before Parliament, before the Government, and before the representative institutions. The President also represents the Governing Council and ensures the execution of the resolutions taken.

    Among other functions, the President convenes, presides over, moderates, and closes the sessions of the Council; is answerable to the questions put him or her by the Parliamentary Control Committee; and asks the Advisory Council for Content and Programmes for the mandatory reports, and for those that he or she may consider relevant to ask of it.


  • The Director-General

    The Director-General of the CCMA is appointed by the Governing Council after an open contest of merits among professionals of recognised competence and prestige. He or she is the executive organ, and is in charge of ensuring the fulfilment of the agreements adopted by the Governing Council. His or her status is one of high management staff, and acts as the Corporation’s contracting body. He or she moreover authorises payments and expenses, and together with the Council elaborates the proposal of the programme contract.

    The Director-General, in accordance with the directives agreed upon by the Council, arranges programming; suggests the appointments and dismissals among the management staff; suggests personnel distribution, the organisational chart and the scales of retribution, both of the Corporation and of its subsidiary companies. The elaboration of annual report and of the group’s action plans are also functions of the Director-General, among others.


  • The Advisory Council for Content and Programmes

    It is the CCMA’s advisory body for the matters of programming and content. It assists the Governing Council and the Director-General for the definition and evaluation of the programming policies and strategies of the Corporation’s various media and services.

    It is made up of twenty-one members, chosen by Parliament, by a two-thirds majority, among people of recognised professional prestige who represent the plurality of Catalan society. At least, the following professional sectors have to be represented in it: education; civil, cultural and users’ associations; and the staff of the CCMA. The term of office of its members must be renewed every four years.


  • Funding

    The budget of the CCMA must conform to the one specified in the Budget Law, the Law of Public Funding of Catalonia, and to the specifications laid down by the actual Law of the CCMA. The budget will be elaborated and managed in accordance with the principles of budget balance. Once forwarded to the Catalan Government, the preliminary budget of the Corporation and its subsidiary companies will be integrated into the Bill of Budgets of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

    The need to define explicitly the CCMA’s function as one of public service, together with its economic and financial situation, led the Catalan Parliament to consider it important to guarantee a framework of stable funding and of economic reorganisation for the CCMA media based on a multiyear programme contract that would outline the objectives.

    The funding of the Entity and of its subsidiaries is part of the Generalitat’s General Budget, through contributions or credits, and through the income and yield of its activities. Thus, its subsidiary companies can co-fund themselves through the marketing of their products and, in a limited way, through the participation in the advertising market. The CCMA’s budget and financial management, as well as that of its subsidiary companies, is periodically subjected to parliamentary control systems.


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Control Bodies


Concerning its actions, the CCMA is answerable, as external bodies, to the Parliamentary Control Committee and the Catalan Broadcasting Authority (Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya, CAC).


  • Parliamentary Control Committee

    The CCMA’s Parliamentary Control Committee was created by law and it holds the parliamentary control over the President, the Director-General, the councillors and all the CCMA management positions and those of its subsidiary companies. The committee lays down that the Members of Parliament can formulate questions that must be responded orally or in writing by the President of the Council, as the highest authority of the entity. The questions to be asked orally will be drawn at the Committee meetings, that will be held at the Catalan Parliament approximately once a month, according to the provisions laid down in Articles 173 and following of the Parliamentary Regulations. The maximum number of questions to be asked in each session will be decided by the Chair.

    The Law also establishes that the bodies of the CCMA, from which Parliament may request information, cannot refuse to provide it whenever it is of interest and relates to the function of control. In the event that providing a reply may mean a prejudice for the interests of the Corporation, the request will be replaced by an attendance at the Secret or Reserved Issues Committee.


  • Catalan Broadcasting Authority (Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya)

    (Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC) is an independent public entity with competencies over the content of the audiovisual sector in Catalonia created by law in 2000 with the will of being a social point of reference of prestige and of vigilance over the quality and the rigour of the audiovisual media that broadcast in Catalonia, and consequently of the subsidiary companies of the CCMA responsible for the emission of content over television, radio and the Internet.

    As a body that watches over the fulfilment of the regulatory norms of the audiovisual sector, and specifically of the political, social, religious and cultural pluralism, and of that of thought, the CAC can ask for reports and for attendances at the various bodies of the CCMA with the aim of looking into specific issues and to guarantee the fulfilment of the missions of public service assigned to public media. Among its functions, the CAC also watches over the fulfilment of language pluralism, of the norms about Catalan and Aranese, of the legislation on protection of children and teenagers, and of the legislation on advertising.


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Commitment to Collaboration


The Corporation has always had the will to collaborate and project itself in various civil and social spheres of Catalonia, as well as in those institutions that work for the furthering of culture, education, or research and development.

There are various levels of collaboration: sponsorship, outright funding, customary collaborations, or participation in specific projects, among others.

Cultural Institutions


Research and University Institutions


Civil and Social Institutions


Others



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Participation in Other Bodies


The CCMA is a member of FORTA (a federation of the radio and television bodies from Spanish autonomous communities) ever since its constitution in April 1989. The aim of the Federation is, according to its statutes, the association of the radio and television entities from the autonomous communities in order to: co-operate and lend support to the fulfilment of their attributions; to strike agreements on intellectual property rights, broadcasts, exchange of programmes and services, and participation in international bodies; or to generate any activity of common interest to the associates – all of which while respecting the independence of each member.


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