Rosa María Molló returns to Beijing 16 years later as TVE's Asia-Pacific correspondent

A return to Beijing

RTVE announced on Monday, 26 October, that Rosa María Molló will become its delegate for Asia-Pacific, based in Beijing. She replaces Yolanda Álvarez, who has been the broadcaster's correspondent in China since 2021. The appointment coincides with the 70th anniversary of TVE. Molló goes back to the Chinese capital 16 years after her first posting there, which ran from 2009 to 2010.

Earlier postings

Molló, born in Lleida in 1963, started her career at Radio Nacional de España, but most of her three decades at RTVE were spent in television. She studied journalism and mass communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). She was a correspondent in the United States from 2003 to 2008, in Asia-Pacific from 2009 to 2010 and in the Middle East from 2010 to 2012. As a reporter she covered the war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, and the revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Syria. In 2009 she succeeded Rosa María Calaf in Beijing after Calaf left the broadcaster through a voluntary redundancy scheme, and she was replaced there in 2010 by Almudena Ariza.

Management and later roles

In January 2019 she returned to RTVE as coordinator of cultural transformation and strategic human resources projects. That September she became presenter of Informe Semanal, and in June 2020 she was named director of corporate communication and image. In February 2022 she was elected to the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia (CAC), the region's top media regulator, and served as its vice president. In 2024 she rejoined RTVE as Audience Defender, handling viewer complaints, and in the 2025-2026 season she presented and directed the nightly news programme 24 horas on Radio Nacional de España. From 2013 to 2019 she worked at an international management agency on team management and organizational change, and she co-wrote a book on leadership, 'Líderes del Cambio que Importa'.

What she expects in China

In an interview published on the RTVE website, Molló said she never expected to return to this part of the world as a correspondent.

“I never thought I would return to this part of the world as a correspondent.”

She said China has changed since she left, moving from a largely rural country that was only beginning to plan its development to a country in full expansion. She expects to find a new country, so she will in effect be starting a posting from scratch. She named language as an important barrier, and said Chinese authorities are wary of the press.

“Besides, the Chinese are very distrustful of the press, and it is not easy to report from China.”

Molló said restrictions on reporting are the same as or greater than in 2009. She recalled arriving in 2009 very combative and said she learned a lesson from that period. She said she expects to do rigorous work and will look for ways to report.

Context of the appointment

The announcement follows an earlier round of changes at RTVE's correspondent posts in Rome, Berlin and London, which RTVE confirmed about two months before this appointment. Molló's new role places her in the Asia-Pacific region, where her 2009 to 2010 posting was filed from Beijing.