Spain’s second-largest newspaper split with its royal correspondent and a group of writers and illustrators quit a satirical weekly magazine amid spats over coverage of King Juan Carlos’s abdication.

Ana Romero, a long-time royal reporter at Madrid-based El Mundo, is no longer writing for the newspaper after a dispute over references to the king’s relationship with German aristocrat Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein following his abdication announcement this week, according to news-website El Confidencial. Romero, one of the reporters who founded El Mundo in 1989, declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

At least three illustrators, Alberto Monteys, Manuel Fontdevila and Bernardo Vergara, and one writer, Isaac Rosa, announced via their Twitter accounts that they would stop working with weekly satirical magazine El Jueves after the magazine’s publisher, RBA, decided not to run a front-page illustration depicting the king handing over a dirty crown.

The monarch, who came to the throne in 1975 as Francisco Franco’s dictatorship ended, steps down as a court probes corruption allegations against his daughter Cristina and her husband and after scandals relating to his private life. His son, Felipe, will become the first Spanish monarch to inherit the crown directly since 1886 when he takes over from his 76-year-old, Italian-born father.

Newsroom Arguments

A spokesman for Unidad Editorial, El Mundo’s publisher, said that Romero remains on the newspaper’s staff and reports by an El Mundo reporter, Maria Ramirez, that her coverage was censored by editor Casimiro Garcia-Abadillo were untrue. He said that the newspaper did not publish anything by Romero in its June 3 edition and that arguments between journalists are common, particularly on high-pressure days such as June 2, the day of the abdication announcement.

Sandra Domenech, a Barcelona-based spokeswoman for RBA, El Jueves’s publisher, confirmed the split with the weekly’s contributors and declined to make any further comment.

The Spanish media have been pummeled by the economic crisis, which saw their sales crater, and have clashed with the government over allegations of corruption relating to the governing People’s Party as well as the main opposition Socialists.

El Mundo’s founding director, Pedro J. Ramirez, was dismissed by the newspaper’s controller, Milan-listed RCS MediaGroup SpA, in January. Ramirez, father of the reporter who alleged censorship, said at the time that he was dismissed as retribution for reporting graft claims against Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy.

The following month, Javier Moreno left his position as editor of Spain’s leading daily, El Pais. Moreno last year oversaw publication of documents purporting to show details of a secret slush fund for senior PP officials. El Pais is controlled by Madrid-listed Promotora de Informaciones SA.

Maria Ramirez and her husband Eduardo Suarez, both reporters for El Mundo, are facing disciplinary proceedings over comments they made on Twitter, the Unidad Editorial spokesman said. The company has not yet decided on what measures to take.

Ramirez said that Garcia-Abadillo had censored Romero’s report on the abdication and expressed her support, in a Twitter post which was retweeted 175 times.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To contact the editors responsible for this story:Kenneth Wong at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Ben Sills, Eddie Buckle