Some 500 parliamentarians of the Spanish Cortes leaned back against their blue-grey benches as Information and Tourism Minister Manuel Fraga Iribarne declared that the legislation before them bridged "two ideological extremes-an absolute and unlimited freedom of the press and total state control." Then, with three dissenting votes, the long-debated, long-awaited Press Law was enacted. The occasion hardly did justice to the passions that its drafting aroused and the curiosity with which Spanish journalists anticipated its application. Five years in the making, the new law is the Franco regime's first broad approach since...
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