Spanish National library director criticised over ‘totalitarian’ attack on press

Anonymous Patron writes THe Independent Reports The director of Spain’s national library, the guardian of the country’s reading heritage – including the country’s newspaper archive – has scandalised the chattering classes by admitting she doesn’t read newspapers and is glad their sales are flagging.

“I haven’t read the press for two months. I don’t watch television or listen to the radio because the tension they express upsets me so much I can’t work,” said Rosa Regas, a writer with left-wing views who was appointed head of the Biblioteca Nacional when the current government took office in 2004. “I know who I vote for, and I know where the lies and insults come from, and I am not a masochist,” she said in an interview published in the Tribuna de la Administracion Publica, a magazine published by the civil service union affiliated to the pro-communist Workers’ Commissions.