The five journalists from the international media outlets that in March interviewed the president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, have denied that the Catalan government paid them for their work, as was insinuated by the Ciutadans party in a parliamentary question to the Catalan government, as reported today by ‘El Món’. “The Generalitat has not paid a single euro for this interview and never even considered this possibility,” insisted the Catalan government in the written response to the questions from Ciutadans.
It is a version of events that El Món has been able to corroborate after talking to the five journalists who interviewed Puigdemont. The journalist from the French daily ‘Le Monde’, Sandrine Morel, insisted in statements to this publication that “they did not pay us anything at all. ‘Le Monde’ paid for the trip. The Generalitat has not paid me any money, absolutely nothing.” Moreover, Morel expressed her “concern” because this type of suspicion “blackens the profession”.
For the journalist on the French daily “to think that we should pay to interview the president of an autonomous region… To me, that seems a little surreal, because the issue generated interest and it is normal that international media outlets should interview the new Catalan president, who up to that point we knew nothing about,” she said, adding: “It is normal that once accepted we should go there and that the newspaper should pay the costs.” “The Generalitat has never paid me for an interview,” she stated bluntly.
