THE EXPERT OF EXPERTS TO THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION DURING THE BACK: LITTLE AND CONTRADICTORY | Spain

He Mass blackout Because of the sudden loss of 15 gigawatts of the electrical system, he tested, again, the authorities responsible for informing the population of a crisis and providing enough data to protect and know what to stick to. But, unlike the pandemic or the Dana, this time, for hours, citizens could not access the Internet, light television or receive in their mobile alert messages, do listen to the battery radius, if they had or could buy it during the day, because in several businesses consulted by this newspaper, dependent on those who had trouble remembering the last one they had sold before the blackout, they explained on Monday they had exhausted them. Experts in the field analyze for the country the official communication strategy on the electric zero: formats, voices, moments and content. And they do not put a good note to the government, despite the effort of some affected organisms that depend on it. The latest appearances of the chief of the Executive and the Red Eléctrica representative are contradictory to each other. Sanchez said Tuesday that he had learned « by the media » that The company ruled out a cyber attack and 24 hours after the massive cut of electricity, this newspaper reported that Ree alerted its investors two months ago of the hypothetical danger that there were « generation disconnections » that could become « severe. »

Moncloa’s information

The blackout began at 12.33 on Monday. The first appearance of the government president in La Moncloa was announced for 17.15 and occurred at 6:00 p.m., five and a half hours after the start of the mass light. Like the second, shortly before 11 p.m. on Monday, which was also delayed, it was without questions. Ramón Salaverría, Professor of Journalism at the University of Navarra that leads the project on Iberifier misinformation, explains: “The first hours in a crisis are very important and until the president’s appearance were the local authorities that carried the institutional leadership. I think that first address was delayed too Issuer of controlling the message you want to give, but transmits lack of transparency and favors that there are people who think: ‘There are things that are not telling me’.

José Julio Fernández Rodríguez, Professor of Constitutional Law, Bachelor of Political Science and Journalism and Responsible for the Project of the University of Santiago de Compostela Informative manipulation as a democratic security and quality problem, Criticize the government strategy for the blackout. “If communication does not arrive, it does not work. In a blackout like this Monday, the communication mechanisms of the 21st century are ineffective. The alternatives are complex, but we must have them designed: satellite communication, for example. In the multiple risks scenarios that we face we must have the most radical at least radical. A blackout was something likely Recover the system. pending years ”. The document of the External Action Strategy Prepared by the Government for the years 2025-2028, it speaks of the need to improve “electric interconnection with France from 2,800 MW to 5,000 MW in 2030 to 8,000 MW later, and with Portugal up to 4,200 MW for 2025 ″.

He Prime Minister of Portugalcountry that was also affected by the mass blackout, appeared at 16.20 in the afternoon, one hour and forty minutes before Sánchez. They had previously made it ministers of his government. By then, the European Commission had already had to go out to deny a bully: that of a coordinated attack on the continent network. Sources of the Spanish Government explain that Sánchez’s first appearance stopped twice before 18.00 for the request of several autonomous communities to declare state 3 of alarm.

Both experts also point out the different voices within the government. « Sánchez, » says Salaverría, « with an institutional profile and the most individual minister of transport. » Óscar Puente was informing in his account on social networks of the evolution of the blackout and how it affected rail transport, but on occasion, with a tone that for the professor Fernández is totally “inappropriate”. At 21.52 he reported that there were 11 trains pending to be rescued. When a tweet replied that « after 12 hours they should be zero, » the minister replied: « Really, what tired you are some. » His first tweet on the blackout was at 17.07 on Monday and since then he did not stop tweeting and informing. At 14.00 on Monday, the Secretary of State for Communication sent a message to journalists in which he explained that the president had moved to the Electric Red Control Center and that the Government would transfer “all the information that is available” as it had “rigorous and contrasted data”. The first message of La Moncloa in its social networks on Monday is from 15.04, two and a half hours after the mass blackout, to inform that Sánchez presided over the extraordinary meeting of the Security Council, which had begun at 3:00 p.m. From that moment, they shared in the same account the informative tweets of official bodies such as AENA or ADIF, as well as different ministries.

Information from official agencies

Although the president of the Government did not add up to the nation until six in the afternoon of the blackout, during the morning and the first hours of this Monday, the official organizations affected informed through their social networks the media they could work thanks to their own generators and disseminate, especially in the case of the radio until the supply was recovering, those data to the population. At 13.40, the DGT asked from his official account to citizens who avoid moving by car because traffic lights or signaling panels did not work and throughout the day he informed of the evolution on the roads through the same medium. Aena’s first tweet, which manages 46 airports, is also 13.40, to communicate that « some incidents » were occurring due to the power cut and that the contingency electrogenic groups were active. The message recommended to travelers « consult » the airlines, but the blackout hindered those consultations and the circulatory chaos, approach the airport. During the rest of the day, Aena disseminated from her account the information provided by other organisms, such as the managers of the Metro or Cercanías. Metro de Madrid reported at 13.01 that the service was already interrupted throughout the day published three tweets. EMT, the urban bus operator in the capital, another eight, including several messages from the mayor and emergency service. The corporate profile of the Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona spread 20 tweets throughout the day.

Electric Red Information

The system operator first reported the blackout in its X account at 12.56: “Activated electricity supply replacement plans in collaboration with companies in the sector after the zero that occurred in the peninsular system. The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solve it”. Both Salaverría and Fernández agree that the information provided by the operator « has been insufficient. » It was not her president, the former socialist minister Beatriz Corredor, but the director of the Operations Service, Eduardo Prieto, who appeared to give explanations (twice on Monday and another this Tuesday). At 14.30. Red Eléctrica gave a first estimate of when the service could return: « between six and ten hours. » It was the fact that national police officers repeated distributed throughout Madrid when tourists and workers who tried to return home asked them on the street when normality would return. After the last appearance, a contradiction arose: the operator rules out the cyber attack, but the president of the Government does not. Sánchez, who in his last speech warned that « this cannot happen again » and that what happened will be investigated, it did not know how to explain what the blackout had motivated, although he did notice what he had not caused: « There was no problem of excess of renewables and the recovery of the supply has been achieved thanks to combined cycles of gas, hydroelectric plants and interconnections with France and Morocco, » he said. And although he assured that “measures” will be taken in the system to prevent the electric zero from happening again, when journalists asked, on two occasions, what kind of changes he referred to did not know how to specify them.