The press of Franco’s Spain (1939-1975)
José Luis Orella Martínez
Faculty of Humanities and Communication Sciences
CEU San Pablo University, Madrid
ORCID: 0000-0003-2727-5955
Published: 22/12/2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/ahi.2023.2.14
ABSTRACT: Franco’s Spain was a right-wing authoritarian regime where General Francisco Franco was the arbiter of different political families of the Spanish right. The press of the moment is an essential source of information for historians as it provides each political family integrated into the regime of its newspaper. However, the Spanish press will be under the supervision of a control law, which will come from the 19th century liberal regimes, but especially from the law of the defence of the Republic and the Public Order Law that tightly controlled the Catholic or right-wing press, clearly leaving in suspense the supposed freedom of opinion during the republican regime. Both sides applied those laws in the Civil War to seize the enemy’s means. At the end of the conflict, the regime returned its groups seized by the left. The regime will have an official press chain. Still, it will be accompanied by a group led by the Catholic Church and several press groups of a monarchist, conservative or independent, more liberal line, which will even be the spokesperson for a permitted opposition.
KEYWORDS: private press, National Movement, Francisco Franco, press law, freedom of the press, propaganda.
