SPAIN: Civicus Monitoring Update – November 2026
This alert originally appeared on CIVICUS Monitor
Introduction
Spain is rated as “narrowed” by the CIVICUS Monitor. Despite this, civil society organisations reported increasing pressures on civic space in 2026. Monitoring documented the continued use of administrative sanctions, criminal proceedings, surveillance and public order measures affecting activists, journalists and civil society organisations (CSOs) across a range of movements, including housing, labour, environmental, antifascist, and Palestine solidarity groups. Particular concerns arose from the continued implementation of the Public Security Law (“Gag Law”), which remains a key mechanism for sanctioning protest-related activity eleven years after its adoption.
Other concerns include ongoing police surveillance and infiltration of social movements, including undercover operations, as well as administrative sanctions and lengthy criminal proceedings targeting activists. Evictions, the dispersal of vulnerable communities and the expansion of surveillance measures affected the ability of housing movements, neighbourhood organisations and other grassroots groups to organise and sustain their work.
Freedom of Association
Police presence in schools and infiltration of social and labour organising spaces
In Spain, concerns about freedom of association centred on police surveillance of organising spaces, ideologically motivated attacks on civil society actors, and repression of the housing movement.
In April 2026, Catalonia launched a pilot programme deploying plainclothes officers of the Mossos d’Esquadra (the Catalan police force) in thirteen schools. Their stated task is to carry out prevention and mediation work in order to “guarantee the coexistence” of students. Teachers, families and students criticised the measure for its lack of transparency, its risk of stigmatising schools that already face significant social challenges, and its replacement of educational and social resources with a police presence.
The incident took place against a broader backdrop of intensified teachers’ mobilisations and restrictions across Spain throughout the spring (see Freedom of peaceful assembly).
Another infiltration case, the thirteenth in Spain since 2022, was revealed by an investigation published on 25th May 2026. Over nearly a year and a half, an officer of the Spanish National Police used a false identity to join and monitor Palestine solidarity and social justice groups in Madrid. Together with the growing number of previously uncovered infiltrations, these recent cases point to a wider police practice of monitoring and infiltrating environmental justice, housing, student and independence groups, as well as other social organising spaces. According to civil society organisations and researchers, police infiltration in Spain is becoming an established tactic of surveillance and intimidation. It has a significant chilling effect on civic participation and erodes trust within social movements.
Ideologically motivated attacks and attacks on organised civil society and community spaces
The Defender a quien Defiende network reported several ideologically motivated attacks and instances of harassment directed at civil society organisations (CSOs), community spaces and cultural initiatives in 2026. Many of these targeted LGBTQI+ and feminist groups. Among the incidents were fascist and Nazi graffiti daubed on the Lakaxita social centre in Irun and on the La Comuna socialist cultural centre in Zaragoza, as well as damage to memorial sites linked to the Basque independence movement in Bilbao. In Tarragona, a march organised in March by the far-right party Vox against immigration and the Muslim community was denounced as an act of intimidation against Muslim residents of the Bonavista neighbourhood. During its tour in June and July, the queer music group Fades reported multiple episodes of abuse, including a homophobic assault during a concert in Vilassar de Mar and the throwing of objects at performers during a Pride event in Lloret de Mar.
In March 2026, during the week of International Women’s Day, a Falangist group violently disrupted an event at the Complutense University of Madrid. According to media reports, around twenty individuals stormed the university premises, verbally abused those present, vandalised classroom furniture and attempted to hang a banner bearing the symbol of the Falange, a Spanish far-right, ultranationalist and fascist political movement founded in 1933. Thirteen of the attackers were subsequently arrested.
Collectively, these incidents contributed to a climate of intimidation that has limited the ability of people and movements, particularly minority rights groups, to organise and participate freely.
Securitisation of public spaces and pressure on the housing movement
In late 2025 and 2026, civil society organisations also reported an intensification of administrative, police, urban-planning and technological control over public space across Spain. Under the banners of coexistence, cleanliness, crime prevention and public safety, authorities expanded their capacity to fine, evict, identify and monitor people who use certain urban spaces. Although these measures do not always aim to restrict the rights to association and protest, they increasingly affect the conditions communities need to gather, organise and sustain networks of mutual support and advocacy, with particular implications for freedom of association.
This trend has been especially visible in relation to housing insecurity and the housing movement. The reform of Barcelona’s “public coexistence” bylaw, which entered into force in February 2026, and a civic ordinance in Zaragoza, which entered into force in October 2026, both strengthen punitive approaches to the use of public space by introducing new offences and increasing penalties. In Zaragoza, community and neighbourhood organisations warned that situations of poverty and homelessness, including sleeping in parks, risk being turned into administrative offences. Under the ordinance, sleeping in a park is now classified as a minor offence punishable by a fine of between €50 and €750. Owing to an administrative error, the text first published in the official gazette classified it as a serious offence carrying fines of up to €3,000, a discrepancy the City Council asked to have corrected.
At the same time, authorities intervened in several spaces inhabited by people facing housing insecurity. These included the former B9 institute building in Badalona, evicted in December 2025; the Zona Franca informal settlement in Barcelona; the former prison in Palma de Mallorca; and a residential block on Calle Real in Collado Villalba (Madrid), all evicted in February 2026. In June, the La Mina public housing estate in Barcelona was added to the list. In each case, organisations and residents criticised the inadequacy of the housing alternatives offered.
In June, the local Housing Assembly in Collado Villalba linked the eviction of around one hundred residents from the Calle Real block to a broader municipal policy of increased use of cameras, drones and police resources. The case illustrates how housing insecurity and squatting are increasingly addressed through public-order measures, affecting not only residents but also the grassroots organisations that support and represent them.
Similar concerns emerged in Cádiz. In February 2026, the Andalusian Association for Human Rights (APDHA), together with workers and staff representatives from the municipal parks maintenance company, reported that blankets, clothing and other personal belongings had been removed from homeless people, allegedly in the presence of local police. Although the City Council denied any policy of harassment, the incident highlights the impact of these measures on vulnerable communities and the civil society networks that support them.
The trend has been accompanied by an expansion of technological monitoring. In Sabadell, “Plan Kanpai” deployed officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the National Police and the Municipal Police, including public-order units, in March 2026 to conduct hundreds of identity checks at train stations, shops and busy streets. In Badalona, municipal authorities announced in May the installation of more than 500 smart cameras with image-analysis and licence-plate recognition capabilities.
Beyond their impact on homeless people, migrants and marginalised communities, these measures undermine the spaces and relationships that enable collective organising. The cumulative effect is particularly significant for housing movements and neighbourhood organisations, whose ability to associate, mobilise and provide mutual support increasingly operates in an environment shaped by surveillance, displacement and punitive regulation.
Freedom of Peaceful Assembly
Teachers, antifascists and students face growing restrictions on protest
In Spain, restrictions on peaceful assembly have been documented across a wide range of mobilisations, including labour protests, antifascist demonstrations, climate actions, and housing and solidarity campaigns.
Teachers’ protests and strikes in Catalonia and the Valencian Community during the first half of 2026 were met with restrictions and repression. According to the Civic Space Watch platform, civil society groups reported unjustified identity checks, threats of charges or arrest, proposed sanctions, checks carried out after demonstrations had ended, and officers without visible identification.
In Barcelona, between February and March 2026, the Mossos d’Esquadra (the Catalan police) identified or filed reports against more than 80 teachers, mainly in connection with road blockades and picket lines. Participants described identity checks during and after demonstrations, threats of arrest and administrative sanctions, officers without visible identification, and the use of force, including shoving, baton strikes, neck grabs and kettling. In Valencia in June, unions reported that police used force against demonstrators gathered outside the regional Department of Education, injuring some, dragging others away and removing protesters engaged in passive resistance. Disciplinary proceedings followed an incident in which an officer allegedly pushed a retired teacher.
Antifascist and student mobilisations have also been widespread, driven by a growing far-right presence on university campuses. In February, a Vox event on the Álava campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) prompted an antifascist student counter-mobilisation. The Ertzaintza, the Basque police force, set up checkpoints and cordons around the venue. Student organisations reported that they saw these measures less as a neutral buffer between the two gatherings than as a restriction on their right to counter-protest.
The arrests in Pamplona in June 2026 show how tensions between antifascist mobilisations, far-right activities and policing can escalate into large-scale police and judicial responses. Following unrest linked to an October 2025 event featuring far-right commentator Vito Quiles, the National Police arrested 28 people in an operation that antifascist, labour and political organisations described as disproportionate.
Criminal and administrative prosecution of climate activists
Climate and environmental activists continued to face administrative and criminal proceedings in Spain. In June 2026, four activists from Rebelión Científica, Extinction Rebellion and Futuro Vegetal were fined €1,400 each for throwing biodegradable paint at the façade of Spain’s Congress of Deputies in March 2023, while five other defendants were acquitted. Prosecutors had sought sentences of up to 21 months in prison for damage to a historic building, even though the cleaning costs had already been paid. In May 2026, proceedings began against three activists over the blockage of a bridge in Madrid during a climate demonstration in 2019. Prosecutors are seeking ten-month prison sentences for serious resistance to authority, even though the action involved hundreds of people and only three were prosecuted.
On 30th June 2026, the Mossos d’Esquadra arrested environmental activists from the Revoltes de la Terra movement in connection with protests held on 17th to 19th April 2026 against the Israeli-owned mining company ICL in the Bages region. Three people were arrested at their homes in Barcelona, and a fourth was investigated after police searched their vehicle. The charges were belonging to a criminal organisation, criminal damage and public disorder, in relation to the protests and the road and rail blockades in Sallent, Súria, Callús and Santpedor. The anti-repression legal collective Alerta Solidària and Revoltes de la Terra itself described the operation as disproportionate, arguing that the activists could have been summoned to testify without being detained and kept from work. All four appeared before an investigating court in Manresa on 1st July. The three who had been arrested were released with charges pending, and the fourth was released without precautionary measures.
On 6th October 2026, a Valencia court acquitted 11 Greenpeace activists who had faced criminal charges over a peaceful protest in 2021 against a fossil gas shipment at the Port of Sagunto. Prosecutors had originally sought five years in prison for each activist, a combined 55 years, before reducing their demand to two and a half years at trial. The court rejected the charge of aggravated public disorder, finding that the prosecution had not proved any violence or intimidation that altered public peace. Witnesses for both the prosecution and the defence, including law enforcement officers, maritime authorities and independent journalists, reportedly confirmed that the action was peaceful and had not harmed people, property or general traffic in the port.
The severity of the sentences sought drew the attention of several UN Special Rapporteurs, some of whom attended the trial as observers. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, said the case showed how easily the legal system can be used to deter people from exercising a fundamental right, even when the court ultimately finds they did nothing wrong. Greenpeace noted that the acquittal does not erase the years of anxiety, legal costs and disruption the activists endured, and called on the prosecution not to appeal.
Mass housing protests met with force, fines and far-right harassment
Spain experienced mass protests for housing rights in September and October 2026. During these large-scale mobilisations, the Civic Space Watch platform documented a range of restrictions, from police violence and judicial, administrative and political pressure to delegitimisation by political figures and harassment by far-right groups.
The trigger was the eviction on 23rd September of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old tenant with disabilities who had lived in her flat in Madrid’s Retiro district for over 70 years. The eviction sparked successive waves of protest. Around 300,000 people joined a large demonstration in Madrid on 26th September, while thousands took to the streets elsewhere in the country. Since that day, protesters have occupied Puerta del Sol in the centre of Madrid, and protest camps have sprung up in Barcelona, València and Alicante, among other cities. Together with tenants’ organisations, trade unions have announced a 24-hour general strike on 11th November in support of housing and decent wages. It will be their first joint general strike since 2012.
Following public pressure, the investment firm that owned Abascal’s flat agreed that she could move back in, but she died in hospital before this could happen. On the day of the eviction, police cleared hundreds of activists from the entrance to the building. Observers described violent policing, with officers striking people with batons and using pepper spray to push journalists away. Some activists were dragged off, grabbed by the neck or physically carried out.
Mobilisation intensified after Congress voted down two housing decrees on 2nd October. The Popular Party, the far-right Vox and Junts, a Catalan pro-independence party, all opposed them. The so-called “Maricarmen decree” would have prolonged the moratorium on evicting vulnerable households until 2030 and limited the acquisition of property by investment funds, while the other decree would have introduced automatic extensions to rental contracts. In response, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap general election for 29th November. The government approved both decrees a second time on 6th October, with the eviction moratorium coming into force on 8th October. However, Congress’s Standing Committee must still ratify them, in a vote expected on 12th November, just after the general strike and immediately before the election campaign begins.
Police use of excessive force was recorded at a number of protests. In València on 3rd October, around 6,000 people gathered outside the Palau de les Arts, the venue for the Real Estate Summit 2026. The National Police restricted the protest and used batons, rubber bullets and tear gas against the crowd, which included children and older people. Five protesters were detained, and Alerta Solidària, a civil society organisation, is considering filing a complaint against the National Police for unlawful use of force. Further incidents were reported elsewhere. At housing demonstrations in Valladolid in late September, police allegedly beat protesters and used excessive force. In Madrid, police and private security guards stopped a student march, and on 28th September a sit-in ended with baton strikes and one arrest. Also in Madrid, on 1st October officers beat and detained protesters before taking them into the regional government building. In Barcelona, the Mossos d’Esquadra detained 13 people, one of them a minor, after disturbances broke out at the end of a housing march on 5th October.
None of the protest camps has yet been forcibly cleared, but the encampments are under mounting judicial, administrative and political pressure, and protesters have been fined. Policymakers have sought to stigmatise and discredit the movement, and far-right groups have repeatedly targeted the camps in a number of Spanish cities.
At the same time, far-right rallies and activities have become more frequent across Spain, and counter-protests against them have repeatedly been restricted. In Pamplona (Navarre) on 16th October, police reportedly fired rubber bullets and foam projectiles and used pepper spray at a counter-demonstration. Dozens of people were hurt, including one who suffered serious injuries after a foam projectile struck their head. In Bilbao on 27th October, police detained 20 people, the majority of them minors, at a protest against a planned event by far-right figure Vito Quiles.
Towards the end of October, police stopped and identified hundreds of people in Barcelona, Granollers, Mataró, Girona and other cities, justifying the checks by pointing to the risk of further protests.
Continued use of the Gag Law to crack down on protests
Eleven years after its entry into force, Spain’s Public Security Law (Organic Law 4/2015), commonly known as the “Gag Law” (Ley Mordaza), continues to pose significant risks to the exercise of civic freedoms. The law provides for administrative sanctions for conduct linked to protests, including disobedience, resistance, refusal to identify oneself and minor public-order offences. Although these sanctions are administrative in nature, civil society organisations (CSOs) have consistently criticised the law’s application for enabling restrictions on protest with fewer procedural safeguards than criminal proceedings. Despite repeated commitments by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez since 2015 to repeal or reform the legislation, reform efforts remained stalled in Congress in the first half of 2026, with the parliamentary working group responsible for drafting a new text yet to meet. In October 2026, parliament was dissolved and snap elections were called for 29th November, further delaying any potential reform.
The law allows conduct arising in the context of demonstrations, picket lines and public rallies to be addressed through administrative proceedings and fines, extending the punitive consequences of participating in collective action. The impact of these measures goes beyond the sanctions themselves: the opening of proceedings, uncertainty over outcomes, legal costs and the attribution of individual responsibility within collective mobilisations all contribute to a chilling effect on participation.
In June 2026, housing unions and anti-repression organisations in Catalonia reported that 88 administrative sanctions, totalling more than €50,000, had been imposed or were being processed against people involved in actions to stop evictions in 2025 alone. According to these organisations, this reflects a stricter application of the Gag Law in housing disputes and a departure from previous criteria that prioritised mediation.
In the Valencian Community, it was reported in February 2026 that more than fifty people had received notice of sanction proceedings totalling more than €35,000. The proceedings followed a strike and demonstration held on 29th May 2025 to demand accountability for the regional government’s handling of the DANA, the catastrophic flash flooding that struck the Valencia region in late October 2024, caused over 200 deaths and led to widespread criticism of the regional government.
The use of sports legislation against international solidarity protests has been another notable recent pattern. Five activists who took part in a demonstration outside a basketball game between Valencia Basket and Israel’s Hapoel Tel Aviv in February were fined a combined €14,600, mainly under Law 19/2007 against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport. In Manresa (Barcelona province), the Mossos d’Esquadra opened more than seventy sanction proceedings over a protest camp set up in April 2026 by the group Revoltes de la Terra against the mining company ICL. The proceedings related to traffic, environmental and unauthorised-camping offences.
Judicialisation and criminalisation: The “dock penalty” in Spain
Criminal proceedings against activists and protesters continued across multiple social movements in Spain, highlighting concerns about the “dock penalty” (pena de banquillo): the chilling effect created by lengthy investigations, repeated court appearances, and the financial and personal costs of legal defence, regardless of the final outcome.
In February 2026, Spain’s Supreme Court upheld prison sentences of up to two years for individuals convicted of public disorder and damage offences following a protest outside a far-right Vox rally in Bilbao in 2019. In March, proceedings continued in Navarre against people linked to protests against Vox events, including investigations in which hate-crime charges have reportedly been considered. In May, two workers in San Fernando were summoned to testify after staging a 28-day sit-in atop a crane at the Navantia shipyard to protest against alleged blacklisting in hiring practices. They face accusations of public disorder, coercion and property damage, and as of October 2026 the case was still in the preliminary investigation phase. The case of the housing rights activists of Olzinelles Absolució was scheduled for a fifth trial on 3rd June, after six years of proceedings, illustrating the impact of prolonged judicial uncertainty on civic participation.
Surveillance of protesters, movements and HRDs
Concerns about surveillance practices linked to public assemblies were raised again in Spain. In Barcelona, the activist collective La Cinètika reported in May 2026 that one of its members had been fined even though she had not been identified at the demonstration in question. This led to allegations that previously collected police information had been reused. Similar concerns emerged in a case dating from 2024, in which anti-fascist activists in Barcelona are on trial and police files and social media activity were reportedly used to establish their ideological affiliation.
In the Basque Country, the Ertzaintza’s (the Basque autonomous police force) handling of body-camera footage from an operation at Bilbao airport raised similar questions. On 23rd May 2026, Ertzaintza officers beat activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla at the airport as they gathered with family members and supporters to welcome participants returning from the humanitarian mission to Gaza, which Israeli forces had intercepted at sea. Officers used batons against those present, and at least four people were arrested.
During a parliamentary appearance in May about the incident, the Basque Security Minister, Bingen Zupiria, played part of a bodycam recording of a detained flotilla member to the chamber, presenting it as evidence that those detained had been provocative. Three days later, in a further parliamentary session, he offered to send a two-minute clip from the same operation directly to an opposition MP’s phone, which he then did. Separately, a security commentator said on a Basque public radio programme that “acting officers” had shared with him, before it had been made public, a phrase from one of the bodycam recordings that he described as almost verbatim.
Both episodes appear to conflict with the Ertzaintza’s internal rules on bodycam use (Instruction No. 042). These rules restrict the transfer or copying of footage to purposes tied to a criminal or serious administrative offence, an ongoing police investigation, or an open judicial or administrative proceeding, and require officers with access to the recordings to keep them confidential. Neither using the footage to justify police conduct in parliament nor passing it to an MP or a media commentator fits within these permitted uses. The Basque Police Oversight and Transparency Commission opened an inquiry, and the flotilla’s support group separately filed a complaint against the Ertzaintza officers involved and against Zupiria himself over the airport incident.
More broadly, protest monitoring by the Defender a quien Defiende network recorded more than 500 identity checks between January and July 2026, across at least 25 cases linked to restrictions on public space or on the rights of assembly, demonstration and protest. These actions affected labour, antifascist, international solidarity, housing rights, environmental and community mobilisations, as well as unaffiliated protesters.
Freedom of Expression
The reporting period also saw restrictions on freedom of expression, particularly affecting journalists and human rights defenders. The attacks on LGBTQI+, feminist, anti-racist and antifascist spaces documented above also fuelled concerns about self-censorship and the narrowing of space for public expression.
Several cases of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) were reported. In February 2026, the food company Ametller Origen filed a criminal complaint of alleged libel and slander against six activists from the StopAgroparc platform, who had criticised the company’s Agroparc development project in Gelida (Barcelona province). One of those targeted, a member of the environmental group Bosc Verd, said that in 40 years of environmental activism he had never faced a legal complaint.
On 2nd March 2026, the singer Julio Iglesias initiated legal proceedings against the news outlet elDiario.es and several of its journalists over their reporting on allegations of sexual assault and labour-related abuses made by two former employees. His lawyers filed a conciliation claim alleging defamation and slander against the outlet’s director, Ignacio Escolar, its deputy director, Juan Luis Sánchez, and the journalists Ana Requena Aguilar, María Ramírez and Elena Cabrera. They demanded corrections and the removal of related articles and a podcast series, arguing that the reporting had harmed Iglesias’s reputation, privacy and presumption of innocence. Iglesias has denied the allegations. elDiario.es defended its reporting, saying it was based on a three-year investigation conducted jointly with Univision Noticias. The filing is a preliminary step before a possible criminal complaint.
On 4th March 2026, the far-right activist Vito Quiles filed a lawsuit against the television commentator Sarah Santaolalla, accusing her of defamation and slander and seeking €250,000 in damages. The lawsuit followed an incident on 2nd March, when Quiles approached Santaolalla outside the Spanish Senate. Santaolalla accused him on social media of physical assault and harassment, while Quiles denied the allegations, claiming that recordings showed he had not assaulted her. Santaolalla had previously reported that on 16th January Quiles followed her from RTVE’s Madrid offices to her home, pursuing her by car for around 20 minutes before arriving at her doorstep with other people. She also said he had followed her on several other occasions.
On 17th March 2026, the Madrid Press Association (APM) revealed that Acción y Comunicación sobre Oriente Medio (ACOM), an organisation whose main objective is to promote and strengthen relations between Spain and Israel, had taken legal action against several journalists from different media outlets, accusing them of “slander and incitement to hatred against Jews”. The journalists targeted reportedly included Antonio Maestre of La Sexta, Silvia Intxaurrondo and Inés Hernand of RTVE, and Raquel Ejerique of elDiario.es. On the same day, the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE) granted protection to Maestre after ACOM reportedly sent him a threatening message warning that he would end up in prison for publishing information critical of the Israeli government.
Another case emerged in Tarragona. Grup Griñó, a waste-management company under criminal investigation for allegedly importing illegal waste from Italy, filed a criminal complaint against environmental activists and journalists linked to a television documentary that exposed the case. Those targeted include the former president of the environmental group GEPEC and the spokesperson for IPCENA. The company alleges that the journalists and activists form a criminal organisation aimed at damaging its reputation. Those targeted said the company had hired a private detective agency to investigate them beforehand, and described the complaint as a deliberate intimidation strategy rather than a genuine legal grievance. On 7th April 2026, a court in Tarragona summoned the journalist Rafa Marrasé and the filmmaker Christophe Sion, who made the documentary, to testify on the basis of the complaint.
The Mapping Media Freedom platform recorded 46 press freedom violations in Spain between January and the end of October 2026. These included nine physical attacks, 20 verbal attacks and one case of a journalist being detained.
On 2nd January 2026, the Salvadoran photojournalist Diego Andrés Rosa Rosales was arrested at a National Police station in Seville while attending an appointment to seek political asylum. The arrest followed an Interpol Red Notice issued at El Salvador’s request over alleged bitcoin trafficking, which his lawyer described as unfounded and politically motivated. Rosales appeared before Spain’s National Court the following day and was released pending a possible extradition request from El Salvador. He had left El Salvador in September 2025 after reported police harassment of his family, and said he feared returning because of the lack of fair trial guarantees and documented abuses in detention.
On 28th September 2026, an unknown perpetrator fired pellet shots at three journalists from Granada’s municipal public television channel TG7 outside its headquarters in the El Florío Industrial Park. The journalists had returned from covering the traditional procession of the Virgen de las Angustias when a white BMW pulled up and someone fired from its rear window before fleeing. One journalist was hit twice and required medical attention. The National Police are investigating. Several journalists’ organisations condemned the attack and called for a thorough investigation and improved safety measures for journalists.
Cases of police interference with journalistic work were also documented. On 10th February 2026, it was reported that the Spanish Government Delegation in Valencia had fined Ainhoa Lérida, a journalist from the outlet Directa, €601 for allegedly obstructing a public road while covering a general strike on 29th May 2025 that called for the resignation of the regional president, Carlos Mazón. Lérida said she had identified herself as a journalist but was prevented from leaving a police cordon. Video footage shows her displaying her press card and identity document and asking officers to let her continue working, before other journalists intervened to identify her as a colleague. Lérida appealed the fine, arguing that it violated her right to information and that she had been sanctioned for carrying out her professional duties.
On 17th March 2026, a Ertzaintza officer reportedly assaulted a photographer working for the Basque outlet Hordago while she was covering demonstrations during a general strike in Bilbao. The incident took place near the Iberdrola Tower in Euskadi Square, where the officer struck her twice despite her repeatedly identifying herself as a journalist. The Basque Association of Journalists, the Basque College of Journalists and the Association of Graphic Reporters of Euskal Herria condemned the attack and called for measures to guarantee journalists’ safety while covering demonstrations.
Journalists were especially vulnerable to attacks and harassment while covering anti-migrant demonstrations linked to the migration crisis in Ceuta in August and September.
On 25th August 2026, the La Sexta reporter Juan José Cuéllar and camera operator Manu Montilla were harassed in Ceuta while covering an anti-migrant demonstration. Demonstrators reportedly surrounded them and shouted at them to leave. The crew was forced to take shelter, and Cuéllar was physically assaulted when a demonstrator pushed him. Police subsequently intervened.
On 27th August, a La Sexta reporter was spat at, insulted and threatened at Benítez beach in Ceuta, where protesters reportedly surrounded him. National Police officers placed him behind a police cordon for protection, but protesters continued to insult and threaten him, including by saying they would follow him until he left the city. The journalist Paloma Fernández Coleto was also physically assaulted while reporting in Ceuta. According to her account, a crowd surrounded her and attacked her, leaving her with bruises and scratches, and her mobile phone was knocked to the ground. She described the incident as evidence of the increasingly hostile and dangerous environment facing journalists in the city.
On 2nd September 2026, several journalists from the public broadcaster RTVE and the television channel La Sexta were harassed and physically assaulted in Madrid while covering a rally on the Ceuta crisis near Spain’s Congress of Deputies. The rally, held under the slogan “Ceuta unites us”, was attended by members of the far-right organisation Núcleo Nacional. RTVE reporters Jesús Poveda, Toni Gómez and Mikel Etxarri were among those targeted. Demonstrators reportedly pushed, hit and spat at journalists, and several surrounded Poveda during a live broadcast, with one almost headbutting him. La Sexta journalists were also insulted, pushed and spat at. Police intervened, and some RTVE journalists had to leave the area and continue their reporting from elsewhere.
Journalists were also attacked at far-right events. On 10th September 2026, the photojournalist Jordi Borràs of the Catalan News Agency was reportedly attacked in Barcelona by members of the ultras group Boixos Nois while covering a rally by the far-right party Aliança Catalana and a counter-protest. Borràs said Mossos d’Esquadra officers pushed him towards the group while preventing him from filming an arrest. Footage showed someone pulling him to the ground and at least two people attempting to kick him. Journalists’ organisations demanded an explanation from the police and called for better protection for journalists.
On 18th September 2026, a participant in a rally organised by the far-right party Vox reportedly attempted to assault a journalist from Diari ARA in Plaça de la Mariana de Sants, Barcelona. According to the outlet, the incident occurred shortly before the Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, arrived to address the gathering. Police intervened to prevent the assault.
Concerns also arose about editorial interference. On 6th July 2026, the works council of the Balearic public broadcaster IB3 accused its news management of interfering with coverage of a protest in defence of the Es Trenc natural park in Mallorca. It said management had removed references to an alleged attempt by the mayor of Campos, who belongs to the right-wing Popular Party (PP), to disrupt the demonstration. On 24th September, IB3’s Director General, Josep Codony, acknowledged before the regional parliament that management had changed the report, arguing that the original was partisan and that the revisions ensured both the organisers’ and the police’s accounts were included. He also publicly identified the journalist who had prepared the original report. The Union of Journalists of the Balearic Islands (SPIB) accused him of intimidating newsroom staff and called for his resignation.
In Andalusia, it was reported on 7th July 2026 that the far-right party Vox was seeking greater representation on the governing board of the public broadcaster RTVA, which oversees Canal Sur, as part of negotiations with the PP over the regional government. Vox was also reportedly seeking greater influence over news programmes and political discussion shows, as well as over contracts with production companies, although the latter claims were not independently confirmed. On 15th July, the Andalusian Journalists’ Union (SPA) condemned the negotiations, warning that allocating board positions according to party quotas threatened Canal Sur’s editorial independence and credibility. It called for board members to be chosen on the basis of professional qualifications rather than political affiliation.
Concerns about surveillance also arose. On 8th September 2026, it was revealed that the Communications Office of Spain’s Ministry of the Interior had compiled a 54-page dossier assessing the ideologies and political stances of more than 200 journalists, commentators and other media professionals. The document, reportedly dated 2024, classified individuals according to their political affiliations and whether they supported or criticised the government on issues including immigration and Catalan independence. FAPE condemned the dossier as a “direct attack on press freedom” and demanded an end to the profiling of journalists, and other media organisations also denounced it. On 9th September, the political party Iustitia Europa filed a criminal complaint against those responsible, while the Spanish Data Protection Agency launched an investigation into the processing of personal data.