RIGHTS-SPAIN: Journalists Unite to Condemn ETA

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Jun 13 2001 (IPS) - Thirty-six journalist organisations gathered Wednesday in the Spanish capital to protest the attacks their colleagues have suffered at the hands of the Basque terrorist group ETA.

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, ‘Basque Fatherland and Freedom’ in the Basque language) considers any journalists who do not bow to their demands – the vast majority – to be enemies in the service of the government.

Since the May 13 elections in the Basque Country, in which ETA allies lost half of the seats they held in the regional parliament, the separatists have carried out two attacks, one of which was fatal.

In the first attack, two days after the elections, a package bomb exploded in the hands of Basque journalist Gorka Landáburu, of the ‘Cambio 16’ weekly. He suffered wounds to his face, neck, and chest and lost three fingers on one hand.

Two weeks later, an ETA member assassinated Santiago Oleaga, financial editor of ‘El Diario Vasco’ in San Sebastián, shooting him three times in the back.

Radio journalists Carlos Herrera and Luis del Olmo, Aurora Intxausti, of ‘El País’ newspaper, and Juan Palomo, of Antena3 TV, also received package bombs recently, but they were detected before causing any harm.

Other members of the media lost to ETA attacks include José María Portell, editor of ‘Gaceta del Norte’, assassinated in June 1978, and José Luis López de la Calle, of the daily ‘El Mundo,’ assassinated in May of last year.

Among the organisers of the Wednesday demonstration were the Federation of Press Associations, International Press Club, Association of Ibero-American Press Correspondents, Association of Arab Journalists, Confederation of Journalist Unions and Reporters without Borders.

Over a thousand journalists representing the broad scope of the communications media gathered at the outdoor museum on La Castellana, the avenue that crosses Madrid north to south.

Gathered around the sculpture ‘La Sirena Varada’ (Stranded Siren) by Basque artist Eduardo Chillida, organisers read aloud a joint statement as well as a letter from Landáburu, whose father was an outspoken human rights activist exiled during the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco (1939-1975).

ETA was founded in the 1960s during the Franco regime with the objective of creating a Basque homeland. The group remained active following Spain’s return to democracy and, since 1975, has participated in three ceasefires. Negotiations between the Spanish government and ETA leaders proved unsuccessful.

“Journalists for freedom! Down with ETA!” read a poster bearing the names of all 36 organisations involved in the demonstration.

These associations came together “to proclaim our commitment to freedom of expression and pluralism in the media, and also to the right to life and personal integrity,” according to the manifesto read by a leader of the Press Association of Madrid.

The text quotes the Basque journalists who asserted, following the ETA attack against Landáburu, that “under no circumstances will we to surrender to blackmail or the coercion of guns and bombs.”

“No matter how much they murder and try to impose terror, we professionals in the communications media will defend the freedom of expression that has cost us so dearly to achieve in this country,” say the organisations in the manifesto.

“The assassins and those who support them must understand that we will continue working in defence of the right to life, for the freedom and plurality of information, without self-censorship or submission to intimidation.”

“We condemn the climate of violence and threats that Basque citizens – and among them, the journalists that work there – are forced to endure, and we express our solidarity with all who fight for peace and liberty in the Basque Country,” says the document.

The organisers cited the words of Basque journalists following the assassination of Oleaga: “Silence is an accomplice to terror. The weapons used against freedom are fired by all those who encourage coercion or pretend that public opinion should remain neutral before this life-and-death battle. Our commitment is to reason.”

The letter written by Landáburu, meanwhile, moved the demonstrators gathered, garnering long applause at its conclusion.

What ETA is seeking is to turn us into cowards so that society will believe that any effort against the organisation is futile, says the letter by the Basque journalist, who is still recovering from the injuries suffered from the package bomb explosion.

“As I said shortly after the attack, and as Basque journalists have recently stated in response to being targeted by ETA, I reaffirm my decision to continue living in the Basque Country and to return as soon as possible to my job,” he wrote.

“I am convinced, as I know all of you are, that one effective way of fighting terrorism is information and the freedom of opinion that belongs to all of us and to the media. These are our weapons of peace and this is our responsibility,” Landáburu stated.