RIGHTS-SPAIN: Media Unite in Condemning ETA

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain, May 12 2000 (IPS) - The editors of Spain’s major press outlets signed a manifesto Friday condemning the illegal Basque organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETABasque Freedom and Homeland) for its offensive against journalists who do not bow to its political line.

The signing ceremony took place in the north-central city of San Sebastian, in the Basque Country Autonomous Community where the ETA separatist struggle through violent actions originated in 1968, claiming at least 800 lives since.

The initiative for the manifesto, titled “They will not silence us,” arose Thursday when the editors of three major Spanish newspapers – with opposing political and economic views – joined forces: Jesús Ceberio of ‘El País,’ Pedro J. Ramírez of ‘El Mundo’ and José Antonio Zarzalejos of ‘ABC.’

The collaboration of these three editors, whose editorial positions clash on a daily basis, came in response to the assassination of José Luis López de Lacalle, a newspaper columnist and activist for peace in the Basque Country.

López de Lacalle was murdered last Sunday in the Basque town of Andoáin as he returned home after buying the day’s newspapers.

In his youth the victim had served on the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) directorate, fought the Francisco Franco dictatorship (1936- 1975) – spending five years in prison as a result, and in 1997, independent of party politics, he co-founded the Ermua Forum to advocate for peace and tolerance in the Basque Country.

José Luis Gutiérrez, former editor of Diario 16, said Friday that “the blood of a martyr, once again, has served to unite those who normally disagree,” because, “faced with death, there can be no political differences when it comes time to condemn it and to implement the means to prevent another such crime from occurring.”

In addition to the manifesto’s three authors, the editors of 13 other major Spanish newspapers announced their support for the initiative Thursday, including the two largest Basque dailies, ‘El Diario Vasco’ and ‘El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco.’

Then on Friday, at least 50 more editors of radio and television stations added their backing to the manifesto before it was made public. Afterwards, the document was made available for the signatures of individual journalists.

Two editors of Basque newspapers, ‘Deia’ (owned by the Basque Nationalist Party) and ‘Gara’, were not invited to sign the manifesto due to their relationships with ETA.

The manifesto’s supporters placed a floral wreath on López de Lacalle’s tomb, then moved to downtown San Sebastian for a ceremony in which journalist and writer Victoria Prego, assistant editor at ‘El Mundo,’ read the document.

The manifesto calls ETA and its actions “fascist” and says the assassination of López de Lacalle concluded “a long series of threats and attacks.”

In the weeks before the assassination, two other ETA attacks were frustrated as government security forces intercepted and deactivated package bombs addressed to journalists Carlos Herrera and Jesús María Zuloaga.

An ETA activist arrested by the police just last month had in his possession a list of the names and personal information of 42 Spanish journalists.

The manifesto indicates that the assassination of López de Lacalle was meant as “a warning,” as ETA members “attack one in order to terrorise all the rest.”

“They want to intimidate us but they will not be able to silence us,” affirmed the signers.

They also criticised the moderate Basque nationalist movement because its leaders have compared journalists to a notoriously bloody force of the Franco army during the Spanish civil war (1936- 1939). Media groups charge that these politicians’ pointing of fingers at journalists has made them targets of ETA attacks.

Carmen Gurruchaga, a reporter for ‘El Mundo,’ was forced to leave San Sebastian, her life-long home, a year and a half ago after ETA bombed her house while she was inside with her two small children.

Gurruchaga said that ETA’s offensive of intimidation against the Basque journalists who do not act according to its wishes translates into numerous threats, but in general the journalists “do not acknowledge receipt.”

This is not because these reporters are irresponsible, she emphasised, but because they are aware that giving into ETA’s demands “is to renounce the inalienable rights of all human beings.”

Her colleagues “know that their responsibility (to inform) means denouncing these totalitarian, sectarian and – above all – anti- democratic ETA behaviours,” Gurruchaga said.

“Every morning they begin the workday with their spirit ready, even while they know that there is a band of assassins ready to shoot them in the head,” she added.