Profile and management of corporate responsibility and sustainability

Vocento’s main responsibility is to provide its audiences and society with a professional media publishing service that offers information, opinion and entertainment.

The Code of Ethics explains the mission, vision and values of Vocento and Grupo Vocento as a media company and its specific commitments to readers, advertisers, employees and shareholders, establishing the company’s main framework of responsibility.

MISSION

The mission of Vocento and Grupo Vocento, based on the freedom of expression and the support for fundamental human rights and public liberties, is to contribute to improving society by obtaining and publishing accurate information and free, plural and independent opinions, and other activities directly or indirectly related to these.

VISIoN

To be a leading media group in Spain, a group that is profitable and is committed, among others, to our:

• Readers: investing in the technological development needed to bring them accurate and objective information as well as products and services for leisure and entertainment, in all current and future media vehicles.
• Advertisers: offering them high quality vehicles and enabling them to partner with our media to benefit from their positive brand attributes.
• Employees: creating the conditions needed for their personal and professional development to encourage their commitment to Vocento’s Mission.
• Shareholders: maintaining their support with ethical behaviour, guaranteeing the sustainability of the company and creating value for their investments

VALUES

• Independence
• Commitment
• Protection of plurality and the freedom of expression
• Management excellence

The Code of Ethics establishes as part of the management of ethics an Ethics Channel which reports to the Ethics Committee. In accordance with international best practice, in 2015 management of the Ethics Channel was outsourced to ensure confidentiality and independence. The Channel will report possible cases of non-compliance so that the Ethics Committee, the body responsible for this area, can investigate and resolve them.

To raise awareness of the Code of Ethics to interested parties, especially to those who are covered by it, the content of the Code is published on the corporate website. In 2015 the Code was distributed to all Vocento employees and employees of subsidiaries by email. The document was formally acknowledged by recipients. In the year there was also a campaign raising the awareness of management.

For 2016, a training plan about the Code of Ethics has been prepared for all employees. The implementation of an internal control system will enable the establishment of controls to mitigate the risks of non-compliance with crime prevention policies.

In 2011, Vocento carried out an internal and external consultation to define the most material issues for its corporate responsibility. These issues have been reviewed frequently. In 2015 we carried out a more wide-reaching update to help define our policy, strategy and plan for corporate responsibility. We have concluded that the core issues for our company are:

• Transparent finances and management.
• Good governance and ethics in business.
• Talent retention and commitment of Vocento employees.
• Excellence in content.
• Management of information.
• Advertising and commercial issues.
• Relationship with readers and audiences.
• Product quality.
• Environment
• Social action.

In the last quarter of 2015, Vocento worked internally to define a General Policy for Corporate Responsibility.

The foundations of this policy and the principles and commitments of the Code of Ethics approved by the Board on 13 November 2014 as well as the principles of human rights, labour, environmental protection and anti-corruption of the United Nations Global Compact, which Vocento joined in 2009.

The purpose of the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy is to maintain the company’s activity for the long term, create value for Stakeholders using principles of ethics, transparency and good governance, and consequently:

• Assume responsibility for our impacts
• Analyse and manage risks from a global perspective
• Encourage dialogue with readers, advertisers, employees and suppliers to improve the attainment of our social goal
• Comply with legal requirements.

To organise and lead the management of Social Responsibility at Vocento, a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee has been created, reporting to the Audit and Compliance Committee.

In the last months of 2015, a CSR Plan for Vocento was prepared, looking at the long term.

The CSR strategy for this period will be based on the following four principles:

• Increasing transparency and improving Access when disclosing relevant information to stakeholders.
• Strengthening our commitment, based on the implementation and communication of the policies and procedures that reflect our Code of Ethics, Mission, Vision and Values.
• Improving our understanding of our stakeholders and their expectations.
• Increasing measuring so as to improve our management of material issues.

The CSR plan and its results will be detailed in full in next year’s Sustainability Report.