Euskal Irrati Telebista (EiTB)

Euskal Irrati Telebista is the Basque Country’s public broadcaster, created by Law 5/1982 of 20 May. Its public-service remit includes promoting the Basque language and culture. The public entity and its media company, EiTB Media, form the EiTB group. Andoni Aldekoa de la Torre has been Director General since October 2020; Ainhoa Alustiza Kapanaga is Managing Director of the public entity.

Media assets

Television: ETB1, ETB2, ETB1 ON and ETB2 ON

Radio: Euskadi Irratia, Gaztea, Radio Euskadi, Radio Vitoria, EiTB Musika and Euskal Kantak

Digital: Primeran, Makusi, GUAU, ETB ON, Orain, kirolakeitb.eus, gaztea.eus and eitb.eus

ETB1 ON and ETB2 ON launched on 18 March 2026 in the terrestrial slots previously used by ETB3 and ETB4. EiTB says the ON services carry some simulcast news and current affairs alongside distinct programming. ETB Sat and Canal Vasco are absent from EiTB’s current four-channel listing. High-definition transmission of ETB1 and ETB2 does not create additional editorial services.

Ownership and governance

EiTB is a public entity dependent on the Basque Government. Its television, radio and internet operations are grouped in EiTB Media. The Department of Culture and Language Policy handles the government’s media portfolio and signed the 2026–2029 programme contract with EiTB.

Article 16 of Law 5/1982 provides that the Government proposes the Director General, the Basque Parliament elects the candidate with the votes of at least half its members plus one, and the Lehendakari appoints that person by decree. Government-proposed dismissal also requires a reason and parliamentary approval by the same threshold. Law 4/1996 introduced parliamentary election of the Director General; attributing that change to Law 8/1998 is incorrect. EiTB dates Aldekoa’s appointment to October 2020, rather than the July proposal recorded in the published entry.

The Board of Directors has 19 members elected by Parliament by two-thirds of votes cast. Parliamentary groups propose candidates for 15 seats. The other four are chosen from proposals submitted by specified academic, cultural, trade-union and consumer bodies. The existing description of nominations by outside bodies therefore captures four seats, not the whole Board. The Director General attends Board meetings with a vote, except on matters affecting him personally.

The present Board was elected on 20 February 2025. Its chair rotates quarterly.

Source of funding and budget

EiTB receives substantial Basque public funding and earns income from sales and services.

A programme contract signed on 6 May 2026 governs EiTB’s public-service commitments through 2029. It specifies EUR 183,912,100 in 2026 operating compensation, EUR 9.5 million for investment and EUR 8 million for audiovisual works. Its operating-compensation figure and the annual budget’s broader current-transfer figure come from different documents and should not be presented as interchangeable. Audited consolidated accounts through 2025 are publicly listed.

Editorial independence

Law 5/1982 requires truthful and impartial information, separation of news and opinion, and respect for political and other forms of pluralism. The 2026–2029 programme contract repeats those principles. EiTB’s newsroom statute provides for elected News Councils representing editorial staff; they can raise possible manipulation or omitted stories with management and give non-binding opinions on proposed news-director appointments. These are substantive professional safeguards, although the existence of rules alone does not establish how consistently they work.

The law also gives the Basque Government defined powers over public-service programming. It may set related programming obligations after consulting the Board, require the broadcast of identified official communications of public interest, and send replies or clarifications to reports about its own acts for broadcast under Article 25. Those powers should be acknowledged when assessing editorial autonomy, yet they do not, by themselves, establish that the Government determines EiTB’s day-to-day news agenda.

Accountability mechanisms extend beyond the newsroom. EiTB must report annually on its public-service performance to the Basque Parliament’s EiTB Control Committee and the Government. Its audience complaints office receives complaints about television, radio and digital services, but its office-holder is the rotating chair of EiTB’s Board. The programme contract’s monitoring committee has four Government and four EiTB representatives, with a Government-appointed chair holding a casting vote. The Basque Country does not have a separate independent audiovisual council comparable to Catalonia’s CAC. These bodies have different remits and degrees of independence; none should be presented as a CAC equivalent.

Political influence is a documented concern. In December 2024 the LAB union objected to a draft PNV party document that linked EiTB’s role to the party’s interests. The PNV amended the passage before approving its final document in March 2025, adding a reference to the pluralism requirement in EiTB’s founding law. The dispute is evidence of political pressure risk and public resistance to it. It is not, without further evidence about newsroom decisions or coverage, a finding that the draft wording was implemented as editorial instruction. The Director General’s previous work as an adviser to Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu is a further reason to examine editorial practice closely.

AI and digital policy

EiTB publishes a policy titled “Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence at EiTB,” listed on its transparency site with a January 2025 publication date. Its listing establishes the policy’s existence; the detailed provisions concerning newsroom use and generative content were not independently established in this review.

Classification rationale

EiTB remains classified Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM), provisionally.

It is publicly owned and predominantly publicly funded. The Government proposes the Director General, while Parliament elects that person and the Board under different voting thresholds. EiTB has statutory impartiality duties, a newsroom statute, professional News Councils and a public complaints process. These arrangements provide checks, but the complaints office sits within the Board and the programme-contract committee includes a Government casting vote.

The 2024–2025 dispute over the governing party’s EiTB proposal makes an unqualified assertion of editorial independence inappropriate. On the material verified here, it does not establish sustained state direction of coverage, which would warrant moving the entry to State-Controlled under SMM’s editorial criterion.

September 2026