Telemadrid anchor voted new head of news at RTVE
Somoano will replace Fran Llorente in crucial role of setting news agenda for national bulletin
Julio Somoano, the midday news anchor at Telemadrid, was on Friday appointed the news director for state broadcaster Radio Televisión Española (RTVE).
The appointment was made soon after Leopoldo González-Echenique was sworn in as the new head of RTVE.
Somoano, 36, was given the post after seven representatives from the Popular Party (PP) and the Catalan nationalist CiU bloc on the RTVE board voted in favor of his appointment. The two Socialist and United Left (IU) representatives abstained.
Somoano will replace Fran Llorente, who has been news director since 2004. The position at RTVE is a crucial one, and involves determining the choice of news content for a national broadcast.
Before the Socialists were swept into power in 2004, RTVE came under fire for reported bias in favor of the PP administration of José María Aznar in its news coverage.
Somoano began his career at Radio Nacional (RNE). Later he was the producer of Telemadrid’s midnight newscast.
