Spanish TV Sparks Outcry Over Map Showing Western Sahara as Part of Morocco

TVE broadcast twice over the weekend a world map showing the Sahara as part of Morocco, reports El Independiente. The Polisario Front immediately seized the channel to demand that this error be corrected, recalling that the Western Sahara is still considered by the UN as an occupied territory, awaiting decolonization.

In a letter addressed to the director of TVE, the representative of the Polisario Front in Spain indicated that the broadcast map "did not make the relevant distinction between the territory of Western Sahara and that of Morocco", calling on the channel to respect international law. The Spanish public television finally corrected the controversial map on Monday, assuring that it was an "error".

This is not the first time that TVE has published a map of Morocco including the Sahara. In 2023, it had made the same "mistake" during the broadcast of an item devoted to the 2030 World Cup of football that Morocco is organizing alongside Spain and Portugal.