Spain

Spain is generally a very safe country for journalists. It particularly stands out in terms of physical safety, as more than 95% of journalists report never having experienced arrests, physical or sexual attacks, and over 92% have no concerns about their physical integrity. According to the UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists, the total number of professionals assassinated in Spain since UNESCO began recording (1993) amounts to two (in the years 2000 and 2001). These two journalists, a columnist for El Mundo and the financial director of El Diario Vasco, were killed by the terrorist group ETA, which announced the definitive cessation of its armed activity in 2011. Therefore, the threat posed by this terrorist group no longer exists. Psychological safety, compared to physical safety, is notably lower. In fact, only 35.8% do not express concern for their emotional and mental well-being. In Spain, the Union of Journalists of the General Workers' Union (UGT, 2023) considers the mental health of Spanish journalists to be "especially worrying" and calls for "specific studies and measures" for diagnosis and prevention. Thus, the Annual Report on the Journalistic Profession prepared by the Madrid Press Association (APM, 2022) states that 70% of respondents believe the mental health of the collective is a "serious" or "somewhat serious" problem and that their own mental health is "somewhat serious." Specifically, 30% confess to having stress, 65% report fatigue problems, 50% experience anxiety or difficulty concentrating at work, and 21% suffer from burnout. Other recent research also indicates stress as a high risk according to the perception of Spanish journalists, with 59.1% feeling stressed very frequently or frequently, 25.3% sometimes, and only 14.6% rarely or never (Herrero-Jiménez et al., 2024). Additionally, 24.3% sometimes, frequently, or very frequently experience hate speech, and 25.1% face public discrediting of their work. Regarding digital safety, Spain is a safe country, although other neighbouring countries receive higher scores. This may be due to a relatively notable number of Spanish journalists feeling monitored sometimes, frequently, or very frequently (18.6%). Of the four components that constitute the overall safety indicator, the financial one in Spain is revealed as the biggest problem. The most important reasons are precariousness and workload: journalists' salaries are low (69.8% are in the four lowest ranges proposed in the survey on a scale where ten ranges were proposed), about a quarter of workers do not have a permanent full-time contract, and the average hours worked exceed the 40 hours weekly stipulated by legislation (43.56). Moreover, 12.3% of journalists work more than 50 hours a week. Similarly, the latest report from the Madrid Press Association (APM, 2024) states that job insecurity and poor remuneration for journalistic work are considered the main problems of the profession.