- Jesús de Polanco
Jesús Polanco Gutiérrez, also known as Jesús de Polanco (
November 7 ,1929 –July 21 ,2007 ) was a businessman fromSpain who built a considerable media empire.cite web | year = 2003| url = http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_27/b3840616.htm | title = Stars of Europe: Jesus de Polanco | publisher = BusinessWeek | accessmonthday = July 7 | accessyear = 2003] In 2005, he was ranked at number 210 in "Forbes " World's Richest People list, and was number 258 in 2006.cite web | year = 2006| url = http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/LC78.html | title = #258 Jesus de Polanco | publisher = Forbes | accessmonthday = February 13 | accessyear = 2006]Media holdings
Born in
Madrid , Polanco was estimated to own 64% of the Prisa group, a conglomerate which includesEl País ; the radio channelCadena SER ; the TV channelCuatro (TV) , the digital TV platformDigital+ (including Canal+), which has a monopolyFact|date=October 2008 on Spain's digital TV and a number of radio channels and local televisions. Prisa also had important interests in editing books and owned theEditorial Santillana ,Ediciones El País ,El País Aguilar Alfaguara ,Altea ,Tiendas Crisol ,Taurus andRichmon Publishing . His nickname became 'Jesús del Gran Poder' for his role behind the political scene.Polanco's media interests were known for being progressive or left-wing. More conservative and clerical rivals in the media, such as the newspapers "ABC " and "El Mundo" or the radio station COPE, have at times accused Polanco's related media of having a monopoly on Spanish information and being capable of presenting biased reporting. Some of these have also accused
PRISA of influencing public opinion against the People's Party (PP) government's management and response to the Madrid train bomb attacks ofMarch 11 ,2004 . The People's Party, led into the campaign byMariano Rajoy , ultimately lost the 2004 Spanish elections to theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), led byJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero .In 2005 Prisa asked the Spanish Government for a license to transform the pay TV channel Canal+ into an open channel. The Government conceded this license and
Cuatro (TV) channel started broadcasting in November 2005. Subsequently, opposition was expressed about the lack of dialogue on this subject.In 2007, responding to the accusations of his media being biased, Polanco said that it was difficult to be impartial when there is a party which would do anything to go back into power. The Spanish People's Party reacted by promoting a boycott of all Polanco's media channels and shareholders. This initiative was criticised by all European democratic parties.
On
July 21 ,2007 Polanco died at the age of 77 in Madrid.References
External links
* [http://www.prisa.es/en/index.html Prisa Group]
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