Spanish television issues a rectification on the false information about an evangelical pastor

On Thursday, August 15, the Spanish television channel Telecinco, in its noon news, issued the rectification of the false news published against the pastor of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Benidorm (region of Alicante), on June 11, 2018.

This rectification occurred one week after the sentence of the Judge of the Court of First Instance number 99 of Madrid, María Gracia Parera Cáceres, in which Telecinco was condemned to publish the correction in the noon news.

The counselor of Legal Affairs of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE), Pablo Simarro, sued Mediaset España, owner of Telecinco, jointly representing the evangelical pastor Ismael Carrió, the Evangelical Baptist Church of Benidrom, the Spanish Evangelical Baptist Union (UEBE) and FEREDE.

PUBLIC RECTIFICATION

The lawsuit was filed by the affected parties because the television network did not rectify the information properly and satisfactorily as established by law.

The rectification of the channel was as follows:

“A year ago we talked about an operation against child pornography with more than 20 detainees in Valencia that involved an evangelical church. The church related to the case was not the one that appeared in those images.

This is the church we show you. The facts were related to the detention of an evangelical pastor for alleged crimes of child pornography.

The news talked about the Evangelical Baptist church of Benidorm and after the relevant checks, the information we gave you was false”.

“It has been shown that this was not the church involved and, therefore, his pastor was never arrested or had anything to do with the facts described or with the crimes narrated. Therefore, we rectify an information that we once gave as true”.

UEBE: “THE TRUTH FINALLY SHINES”

The UEBE laments “this grave error, of deep damage in the honor of one of our pastors, as well as the long delay of Mediaset recognising its mistake, but we thank God because the truth has finally shone”

“Thank God, this phase has been resolved in part, because, will this rectification be sufficient, according to the terms dictated by the Judge? We'll see ... And, also, does it all end there? ... Who knows”, the evangelical Baptist church of Benidorm has pointed out.



 

SINCE JUNE 2018

The case took place on June 2018, when in the noon news, Telecinco included a piece dedicated to a macro operation carried out by the Police, in several Spanish regions, against child pornography.

In the midst of the information, Telecinco included a reference to the Baptist Church of Benidorm and its pastor as the alleged detainee.

Furthermore, they included questions to pedestrians near the church, in which they were told that the pastor of the church had been accused of child pornography..

All this caused serious damage to the public image of both the pastor and the church, which were falsely linked to a case that had nothing to do with them.

Telecinco offered a slight rectification a few days later, although this did not occur according to what UEBE and FEREDE had requested. Therefore, a lawsuit was filed on July 2, 2018.