THE MINISTERIAL GAZETTE OF SEVILLA: OFFICIAL NEWS AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

The Gazeta Ministerial was the official newspaper of the Junta Suprema, which was set up in Seville after the risings that followed the French invasion. Publication began on 1st June 1808, when the Junta Central had moved to Seville from Madrid, and ended on 10th January 1809. The purpose of the newspaper was to publish official information, which would counteract that of the pro-French papers, but the Gazeta also included articles whose aim was to form public opinion in line with the new established order. These articles maintained that it was the popular vote that caused the fall of Godoy and the establishment of the reign of Fernando VI, and that, when the population rose against Napoleon, a new political order had already been established: the people were free, not because they had broken the chains of tyranny of Napoleon, but because they had broken those of Carlos IV. The message was clearly revolutionary and a precursor of those that appeared in an important newspaper of the time, the Seminario Patriotico, first published in Madrid in September 1808.