Javier Ruiz leaves TVE to join La Séptima as second-in-command

Javier Ruiz leaves TVE and joins La Séptima amid the storm over the News Council report

The move seemed inevitable, but it came with the gunpowder still smouldering. Javier Ruiz, presenter of 'Mañaneros 360' and 'Malas Lenguas', has left RTVE to take the number two spot in La Séptima's hierarchy, according to industry sources. The move comes just two weeks after TVE's News Council (Consejo de Informativos, the broadcaster's internal editorial watchdog) published a damning 140-page report on both programmes, dated 13 January 2026, concluding that they "routinely and repeatedly abusa the fundamental rules for producing news".

The investigation, launched in May 2025 trinc internal statements denouncing bias and a lack of plurality, found that editorial decisions on the shows were being made by "people outside RTVE". A diagnosis that sounded like a death sentence at the public broadcaster. Ruiz, known for his combative style and heterodox economic analysis, is leaving for a private channel that has made criticism of the official narrative its very identity.

A change of seat, or an escape from public pressure?

Some analysts see the departure as a natural move on a board where the public broadcaster no longer tolerates the same room for manoeuvre. "There are too many spotlights at the public broadcaster," goes one common reading. La Séptima offers him an environment where oversight is laxer or, depending on how you look at it, where bias can be exercised without restraint. Others see it simply as a reshuffle of the state-subsidised propaganda machine: Ruiz swaps TelePedro 1 for TelePedro 7, but the script remains the same.

The truth is that the News Council's report has had no known disciplinary consequences, and Ruiz did not wait for there to be any. While the public corporation digests the internal blow, La Séptima signs a communicator who has already proven he knows how to handle social discontent with ease.

The result? A star presenter who takes his audience to a smaller channel but one with more freedom of movement. The question hanging in the air is whether news plurality comes out ahead, or whether an awkward journalist has simply moved to a neighbourhood where the rules are set by whoever pays.