02. PRISA, A GLOBAL GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2011 Vision, mission and values A commitment to society is at the very core of PRISA. From the very beginning, the founders and promoters of El País have been committed to Spanish society, to defending and expanding democratic liberty, equality and civil rights for all. Three decades after the first issue of El País, this commitment remains as strong and vital as ever. This vision is shared by all those who work in our organization and is evident in the work and in the day-today operations of all those who work for PRISA. Independence and rigor in our role as informers, educators and communicators. Responsibility, intellectual honesty and transparency Respect for all ideas, cultures and people. Defense of freedom, peace and the protection of the environment. Self-criticism aimed at achieving personal and business improvement. Creativity and innovation in the development of business. Attention to the demands and concerns of society at all times. Responsible, efficient and sustainable management, which generates added value for both the shareholder and society as a whole. El País Editorial Code. “El País is an independent newspaper with a clear international vocation and a defender of plural democracy based on liberal and social principles. It is committed to the defense of the democratic and legal order established by the Constitution. Within this framework, it embraces all tendencies, with the exception of those seeking to achieve their ends through violence (…) the paper is dedicated to providing daily accurate, complete and high quality information of interest to the public, thus enabling the reader to comprehend reality and form their own opinion of the world”. “El País should be a liberal, independent, socially responsible, national and European newspaper, attentive to the changes taking place in Western society”. “Liberal, to my understanding, means two things: to be willing to understand and listen to those holding different views and to reject the idea that the end justifies the means. In our times, liberal also implies the belief in popular sovereignty, that is, in the equal rights of each and every individual citizen”. “We must therefore defend plural democracy, exercised through universal suffrage, as the least bad mechanism invented for the exercise of this sovereignty. We must recognize the fundamental rights of all people, while denouncing all types of totalitarianism, as the inescapable consequence of these beliefs”. “El País must also be an independent newspaper, not party to or mouthpiece for political, financial or cultural organizations or groups, and, while it defends free enterprise and depends on revenues from its advertisers, the newspaper rejects all conditions from economic pressure groups”. “El País must also champion solidarity, as in today’s world, at least in Western countries, every member of society is a participant in the general welfare. For this reason, it must defend the establishment and proper administration of a Social Security system and a fair and just sharing of wealth through the proper imposition of taxation without inhibiting individual growth. It must also defend the environment, as the patrimony of all humanity; it must defend civic virtues, and endeavor to combat all corruption, fraud or abuse, and private and state monopolies. The solidarity of all Citizens before the law is also its mission, for which reason we consider the independence of the judiciary to be fundamental”. José Ortega Spottorno, March 5, 1977. These values have always been embraced by the teams of professionals working at El País and have subsequently been taken on board by all the Group’s companies as they strive to be both socially responsible and leaders in the fields of education, news and entertainment in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets. We are thus responsive to the needs and expectations of a free, responsible, respectful and sustainable society. Meanwhile, the rapid changes taking place in the media sector have spurred PRISA’s transformation into a “new company”, focused not only on the production and distribution of content in Spanish and Portuguese, 16