Spanish Newspaper Association Asks Government to Stop Google News Closure "To Protect Rights of Citizens and Businesses"

Last Friday, I reported Google News Closes in Spain.

The closure was a direct result of an inane new law in Spain that requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not.

I commented ...

"There is absolutely no way, anyone, anywhere, benefits from a news vacuum other than corrupt leaders and tiny media outlets that support corrupt leaders. Spanish publications may think they won a victory, but they will soon find out otherwise when their traffic slumps and ad revenue right along with it."

The law was passed at the request of the Spanish Newspaper Publishers' Association. Results were both swift and amusing.

Please consider this extremely ironic result: Spanish Newspaper Publishers’ Association Now Asks Government To Help Stop Google News Closure

AEDE announces it wants the Spanish government and EU competition authorities to stop Google closing Google News: “to protect the rights of citizens and businesses”.

The main media lobby behind Spain’s new intellectual property law, which caused Google to announce late on Wednesday night that it was to close Google News in Spain, has now said it wants the Spanish government and European competition authorities to intervene to stop Google shutting down the service.

The Spanish Newspaper Publishers’ Association (AEDE) issued a statement last night saying that Google News was “not just the closure of another service given its dominant market position”, recognising that Google’s decision: “will undoubtedly have a negative impact on citizens and Spanish businesses”.

Irene Lanzaco, a spokeswoman for AEDE, told The Spain Report by telephone that “we’re not asking Google to take a step backwards, we’ve always been open to negotiations with Google” but, she said: “Google has not taken a neutral stance”.

“Of course they are free to close their business, but one thing is the closure of Google News and quite another the positioning in the general index.”

Rights of Citizens

Apparently the rights of citizens and businesses in Spain includes free services from Google.

Actually, it goes even further. As I commented last week, Google News makes no money and does not even have advertising on the site.

Neutral Stance Irony

The AEDE wants a "neutral stance".

Here's a second irony. If Google actually provided a "neutral stance", it would seek to make money either off advertising or by charging the AEDE for promoting its news publishers.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com