Fighting misinformation
Poor translations and lies on social media are confusing residents
COSTA Blanca town halls are trying to fight misinformation so that non-Spanish speakers understand their obligations under the state of emergency laws.
San Fulgencio has the highest percentage of UK citizens in Spain and the municipality’s two British councillors help to explain official information and liaise with the town hall and local police.
Samantha Hull told Costa Blanca News that she and colleague Darren Parmenter have dealt with enquiries and questions from over 600 different people of all nationalities, not just from San Fulgencio but from other local municipalities as well.
“This has exposed the lack of other British people involved in local politics or in official positions,” noted the councillor. “The overwhelming majority have been asking for clarification after watching, reading and hearing a combination of UK TV news, gossip, and fake news, misinformation, poor translations and lies on Facebook.
“This has delayed us from handling many important and serious issues that we are called upon to deal with.”
UK-based media reporting that ‘the lockdown in Spain has been relaxed’, without going into detail, led many British citizens to believe that things had returned to some form of normality, she lamented.
From working closely with the local police, she knows that many people have been fined for flouting the state of emergency restrictions, ‘either deliberately or because they’re not aware of the laws for the reasons outlined earlier’.
Although the vast majority are British, there are other nationalities, and all represent only a very small proportion of the population, she assured.
In the meantime, she and Mr Parmenter will continue updating people by translating official information on the town hall Facebook page ‘until the state of emergency is over and beyond’.
Ms Hull is also responsible for social services and has been ‘working non-stop to ensure that those most in need and vulnerable are not being left behind’ with Protección Civil volunteers making collections and deliveries.
She praised generous local businesses for their donations of equipment and the ‘remarkable community spirit’ shown by many who have supplied facemasks and looked out for their neighbours.