By Tito Drago
MADRID, Jul 17 1997 (IPS)

The backlash against the radical Basque separatist organisation ETA in Spain, stronger than ever since the recent murder of a young town councillor, has led to the isolation of ETA allies throughout Spain.

TV stations and newspapers have announced their refusal to report on ETA’s political arm, the Herri Batasuna (HB) coalition.

Residents of Ermua, the hometown of Miguel Angel Blanco, the 29- year-old town councillor whose abduction and murder last week unleashed an unprecedented outcry against ETA in the Basque country, are boycotting businesses owned by HB followers.

HB allies in Basque country municipal governments have decided to break accords and remove mayors belonging to the coalition.

Interior Minister of the autonomous Basque government, Juan Maria Atutxa, banned an HB public demonstration scheduled for Saturday, arguing that incidents were likely given the climate of tension prevailing in the Basque country since Blanco’s murder.

HB has turned to the Basque country High Court. If the Court backs Atutxa’s decision, it would be the first time a public rally would have been prohibited since the reestablishment of democracy in Spain.

Not only Spain’s political parties have condemned HB. The European Parliament in Brussels decided Thursday to withdraw the privileges enjoyed by HB leader Carmelo Landa as a former European Parliament deputy.

Landa, who has been declared “persona non grata” by the European Parliament, will no longer be able to use the parliament’s installations to hold meetings and press conferences.

The murder of Blanco has even drawn fire from within the ranks of ETA. An imprisoned member of the organisation called the murder a “macabre terrorist act,” and two others wrote a letter expressing their solidarity with Blanco’s family, and urging an end to the armed struggle.

Some of the reactions have been called into question. The mayor of Ermua, a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), urged that the boycott of businesses of HB supporters be lifted, arguing that “we must extend a hand to those who were horrified by the crime,” rather than isolate them, at a time when ETA and HB are closer than ever to cracking.

The refusal of Spain’s two leading TV stations, Tele5 and Antena 3TV, to report on HB until the coalition condemned the murder of Blanco, and the decision by the editor-in-chief of the conservative daily ‘ABC’, Manuel Gimenez Aleman, not to publish a single article on HB unless it had to do with criticism of the coalition, also drew fire.

The daily ‘El Mundo’ argued that “the media cannot limit citizens’ right to receive information.” The media should reflect reality, analyse it and even try to change it, but never omit it, the editorial says.

Graziano Gonzalez, professor of philosophy at Madrid’s Complutense University, the country’s oldest and largest, criticised the TV stations, maintaining that the rights of freedom of expression and to be informed prevailed over any other consideration.

But Enrique Lopez Castellon, professor of ethics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, called the TV stations’ decision an “irreproachable measure, which should have been taken long ago.”

Spain’s Federation of Press Associations, which groups reporters, called a meeting to study and follow-up on the initiatives adopted “to isolate terrorism and its accomplices.”

The pro-ETA daily ‘Egin’, meanwhile, published an article Wednesday in which political science professor Mario Zubiaga justified the murder of Blanco, who he said was a “political representative of Spain’s governing party, not just any citizen.” A bricklayer’s son, Blanco was a councillor in Ermua, a town of 12,000 inhabitants.

Excerpt:

By Tito Drago
MADRID, Jul 17 1997 (IPS)

The backlash against the radical Basque separatist organisation ETA in Spain, stronger than ever since the recent murder of a young town councillor, has led to the isolation of ETA allies throughout Spain.

TV stations and newspapers have announced their refusal to report on ETA’s political arm, the Herri Batasuna (HB) coalition.

Residents of Ermua, the hometown of Miguel Angel Blanco, the 29- year-old town councillor whose abduction and murder last week unleashed an unprecedented outcry against ETA in the Basque country, are boycotting businesses owned by HB followers.

HB allies in Basque country municipal governments have decided to break accords and remove mayors belonging to the coalition.

Interior Minister of the autonomous Basque government, Juan Maria Atutxa, banned an HB public demonstration scheduled for Saturday, arguing that incidents were likely given the climate of tension prevailing in the Basque country since Blanco’s murder.

HB has turned to the Basque country High Court. If the Court backs Atutxa’s decision, it would be the first time a public rally would have been prohibited since the reestablishment of democracy in Spain.

Not only Spain’s political parties have condemned HB. The European Parliament in Brussels decided Thursday to withdraw the privileges enjoyed by HB leader Carmelo Landa as a former European Parliament deputy.

Landa, who has been declared “persona non grata” by the European Parliament, will no longer be able to use the parliament’s installations to hold meetings and press conferences.

The murder of Blanco has even drawn fire from within the ranks of ETA. An imprisoned member of the organisation called the murder a “macabre terrorist act,” and two others wrote a letter expressing their solidarity with Blanco’s family, and urging an end to the armed struggle.

Some of the reactions have been called into question. The mayor of Ermua, a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), urged that the boycott of businesses of HB supporters be lifted, arguing that “we must extend a hand to those who were horrified by the crime,” rather than isolate them, at a time when ETA and HB are closer than ever to cracking.

The refusal of Spain’s two leading TV stations, Tele5 and Antena 3TV, to report on HB until the coalition condemned the murder of Blanco, and the decision by the editor-in-chief of the conservative daily ‘ABC’, Manuel Gimenez Aleman, not to publish a single article on HB unless it had to do with criticism of the coalition, also drew fire.

The daily ‘El Mundo’ argued that “the media cannot limit citizens’ right to receive information.” The media should reflect reality, analyse it and even try to change it, but never omit it, the editorial says.

Graziano Gonzalez, professor of philosophy at Madrid’s Complutense University, the country’s oldest and largest, criticised the TV stations, maintaining that the rights of freedom of expression and to be informed prevailed over any other consideration.

But Enrique Lopez Castellon, professor of ethics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, called the TV stations’ decision an “irreproachable measure, which should have been taken long ago.”

Spain’s Federation of Press Associations, which groups reporters, called a meeting to study and follow-up on the initiatives adopted “to isolate terrorism and its accomplices.”

The pro-ETA daily ‘Egin’, meanwhile, published an article Wednesday in which political science professor Mario Zubiaga justified the murder of Blanco, who he said was a “political representative of Spain’s governing party, not just any citizen.” A bricklayer’s son, Blanco was a councillor in Ermua, a town of 12,000 inhabitants.

Excerpt: