A court in Madrid has opened preliminary proceedings following the complaint filed by Iustitia Europa regarding the dossier prepared within the Ministry of the Interior and its Communication Office, which contains individualized files of journalists, communicators, and talk show hosts. The procedure, registered as Preliminary Proceedings 2645/2026, is being processed before the Instruction Section of the Court of Instance of Madrid, Plaza number 16.
The complaint was filed on September 9, after El Confidencial reported the existence of the document titled “Talk Show Hosts. Radio and Television”. According to the documentation provided by Iustitia Europa, the dossier contains photographs, professional references, and assessments regarding the ideology, political affinity, or position regarding the Government of various professionals linked to media and talk shows.
The judicial movement is still in an initial phase. The magistrate has agreed to process the actions as preliminary proceedings and, through a provision dated September 15, has referred it to the Public Prosecutor's Office to rule on the admission of the complaint. The opening of these proceedings does not, by itself, determine the existence of a crime nor assign responsibilities to any person.
Data protection: what information was collected and for what
One of the aspects that Iustitia Europa wants to be examined is the handling of the data included in the files. The organization considers it necessary to determine what information was collected about the journalists, from what sources it came, who decided to include it in the document, where it was stored, and which individuals had access to it.
The issue becomes particularly relevant, according to the organization, due to the nature of part of the information collected: alongside professional data and photographs, there are references and assessments related to the ideology, political affinities, or public positions of the identified professionals.
Iustitia Europa holds that the investigation must determine whether that information treatment complied with legal obligations regarding data protection and what the specific purpose was for preparing and keeping the files. The complaint requests, in this regard, to clarify not only the origin of the document but also its journey within the Administration and its eventual use.
The judicial provision itself, according to what the organization states in its statement, places the reported actions in relation to the “preparation, treatment, storage, conservation, and eventual use” of the document within the scope of the Ministry of the Interior and its Communication Office.
The unknown that IE wants to clarify: who gave the order
The participation of Iustitia Europa as popular accusation aims to promote the investigation into the chain of preparation and access to the dossier. The organization demands that it be determined who ordered its creation, who made the classifications, what sources were used, and which individuals had access to the document.
For Luis María Pardo, president of Iustitia Europa, these are the central issues that Justice must clarify now.
“We want to know who ordered the preparation of these files, who had access to them, and for what they were used”, Pardo states, announcing that the organization will request the proceedings it deems necessary to advance in the investigation.
The organization also aims for the court to determine whether the preparation of this document responded to a specific and isolated action or if, as it posits as a research hypothesis, there could be other documents or files with similar characteristics that have not yet come to light.
This last possibility is not currently substantiated in the procedure. It is a line that Iustitia Europa wants to be verified through the judicial investigation, based on the content of the known dossier and the individuals and units that may have intervened in its preparation, treatment, or custody.
From specific files to the functioning of the Administration
The organization believes that the scope of the matter is not limited to the individuals identified in the document. Pardo links it to press freedom and pluralism and asserts that a media professional must be able to investigate, inform, and criticize public authorities without their positions being subject to an internal classification whose purpose is unknown to them.
“This goes far beyond the specific people who appear in the dossier,” says the president of Iustitia Europa. In his opinion, the investigation must determine what the limits and purpose of the actions carried out within the Ministry were.
From a judicial point of view, however, it will be the proceedings that will have to establish what happened, who intervened, and what the destination of the information was. For now, the procedure is based on a complaint and a document whose preparation and eventual use are precisely the subject of investigation.
The procedure now enters a first phase
The magistrate has forwarded the complaint to the Public Prosecutor's Office for it to rule on its admission. Meanwhile, Iustitia Europa has already appeared as a popular accusation and is preparing the request for new proceedings to try to determine the origin, preparation, access, and use of the dossier.
Among the issues that the organization wants to bring before the court are the identification of those who participated in its preparation, the sources used to prepare the files, the people who had access to them, and the purpose for which they were collected and stored.
The investigation will also have to determine whether the reported facts were limited to the document “Tertulianos. Radio y Televisión” or if there are other materials of a similar nature. At the moment, the existence of other dossiers is not judicially accredited: it is a possibility that Iustitia Europa raises and whose eventual confirmation would depend on what the instruction determines.