In a statement yesterday Carmen Caffarel (photo), the socialist-appointed president of state broadcaster RTVE announced some new measures aimed at cutting down the immense financial problem that the broadcaster has become.

In her statement Ms Caffarel announced the closure of Radio 4, which broadcasts exclusively in Catalan, the closure of the production facility on the Canary Islands, the reduction of the time spent on assembling local newscasts, whilst the second national TV channel – La 2 – as well as radio 5 would lose some of their territorial links with the various autonomies.

However two production centres would remain at full activity: Madrid and Sant Cugat Del Valles in Barcelona.