The High Court accepts the Appeal presented by the Madrid’s association of community radios (UCRM) against their suppression on the new Decree of broadcasting of the Madrid’s regional government, Comunidad de Madrid.

The sentence emitted by the High Court accepts the Appeal noticed by the Unión de Radios Libres y Comunitarias de Madrid (UCRM) against the modification of the Decree 29/2003, by which the Comunidad de Madrid modified the normative concerning the FM radio frequencies granting. The modification of the Decree suppressed the cultural and/or not-for-profit stations and established that only the “commercial stations” and the “municipal stations” could access to the broadcasting service.

According the Decree’s preliminary recitals, the Madrid’s government suppressed the “cultural stations” because the State’s planning does not permit to grant frequencies to that kind of stations, a question
which has been denied several occasions by the Central Government. Now, the High Court overturns the Decree’s modification

Despite the sentence does not improve the community and free stations legal status, it is important since it prevents the removal of the not-for-profit stations from the broadcasting regulation; furthermore, it recognizes the UCRM and the community and free radios as interlocutors before the Administration and as a particular sector within the audiovisual landscape.

This sentence was preceded by other emitted recently by the Madrid’s High Court of Justice that quashes the Digital TV frequencies granting by the Comunidad de Madrid due to the lack of transparency.