Asking Spanish-Speaking Techrights Readers to Contact Spanish Journalists Regarding the "Alicante Mafia" (and EPO Cocainegate)
Many people are suffering. We hear from them. Requesting intervention by our readers.
I've checked with some people, even with my wife, if it would be sensible and tactful to openly and publicly encourage readers to contact journalists, knowing that: 1) they have had a week to reply to me (but didn't); 2) they already know EPO affairs; 3) their publishers (bosses) or direct supervisors/editors might be suppressing their journalism/inquiry.
So today we escalate somewhat and we're going to name some Spanish journalists - starting with the following pair. Those are two possible contacts who are deemed to be Spanish-speaking journalists that might have some interest in the EPO Cocainegate saga, based on their past writings (track record).
Here are two possible points of contact:
Héctor Fernández Medrano
El Español (Alacant)
E-mail: hector.fernandez@elespanol.com
Carlos Sánchez Sanz
El Confidencial
E-mail: csanchez@elconfidencial.com
For some background, consider the track record. It may help in wording E-mails to them.
In July 2018 Héctor Fernández wrote a sarcastic "farewell" to António Campinos on the occasion of his departure from Alicante to take up his new job in Munich.
The article was entitled: "One-way trip - Farewell Campinos, your bicycle lane remains"
Amongst other things the article referred to "the scandal involving his son, who claimed diplomatic immunity after being charged with driving without a license and while drunk".
In November 2015 during the Benoît Battistelli era, Carlos Sanchez authored an article in El Confidencial about the "powder-keg" at the EPO.
A portion in English:
UNIONS DENOUNCE A CLIMATE OF TERRORSuicides, espionage, nepotism... The European Patent Office is a powder keg
Unions denounce that a climate of terror has been created at the European Patent Office, leading to suicides, sick leave, and repression.
The scandal has reached governments.
If you contact these Spanish(-speaking) journalists, then it's only common sense that you should be very polite and preferably write in Spanish.
Here are two more possible points of contacts, perhaps as merely secondary points of contact (I've tried both, to no avail). There may be auto-responders. They definitely got my messages.
There is another Spanish journalist who might be interested in the story: Gema Peñalosa
Peñalosa is an editor with the Spanish daily El Mundo and she wrote an article in 2016 about the car crash involving the son of Campinos who tried (unsuccessfully) to invoke "immunity" to escape the consequences of his drunken escapade.
So she is no stranger to the EPO, EUIPO, and Campinos.
That article (in Spanish) can be found here in El Mundo. Peñalosa is still active after all those years, but I tried for about 10 minutes to find her E-mail, without success. Others tried as well.
"We couldn't track down an E-mail for Peñalosa," folks told me, "but according to the website of El Mundo, the editorial staff can be contacted via this E-mail: attcliente@unidadeditorial.es"
Peñalosa also has an account on X/Twitter, so maybe direct messages can be sent there. I'm not on X/Twitter, so I cannot comment on how it's run or how that site works these days.
If nobody writes about EPO affairs, that itself is a bit of a scandal. █