Cadena SER abruptly dismisses Javier Ruiz a month before his move to La Séptima

Cadena SER abruptly dismisses Javier Ruiz a month before his move to La Séptima

When a business journalist has spent three decades at the same outlet, the usual thing is a grand farewell. Javier Ruiz left through the back door: Cadena SER has removed him abruptly, without giving him the chance to say goodbye to listeners, a month before he was due to join La Séptima as editorial director.

The dismissal, first reported by El Plural and picked up by La Vanguardia, is part of a restructuring that has already seen Àngels Barceló leave and, according to La Razón, the news director as well. Ruiz leaves Hora 25 de los Negocios, one of the reference programmes for business news on Spanish radio, after more than three decades at the PRISA group station.

The detail that fuels suspicion is the timing. La Séptima begins broadcasting on 5 November. If Ruiz had left of his own accord, the contract would have been terminated at no cost. With an abrupt dismissal, severance for unfair dismissal can reach two years' salary. Some interpret the move as a disguised subsidy: that SER, part of the PRISA group, is paying part of the cost of hiring someone who is joining a television channel seen as close to the Government. Other readings speak of an ideological purge, a clearing out of profiles considered close to the official narrative, amid the full unravelling of the political cycle.

Another strategic interpretation also circulates among analysts: PRISA would have toned down its explicit support for the Government and is seeking a more social-democratic profile in its media, preparing the ground for a possible change of direction.

No one can quite explain why a station that prides itself on its independence needs to cushion the departure of a journalist who already had a new job with a multimillion-euro severance package. That afraid of silence before its time?