RIGHTS-SPAIN: ETA Attack Endangers All Journalists, Says RSF

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Mar 28 2000 (IPS) - The illegal Basque separatist organisation ETA (Euskadi ta AzkatasunaBasque Homeland and Freedom) has put all Spanish journalists in danger, declared Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSFJournalists Without Borders), Tuesday, as it condemned Monday’s bomb attack against a radio programme director.

Carlos Herrera, director of the morning programme on Spain’s National Radio, escaped with his life Monday when he became suspicious of a box of Cuban cigars sent to him by supposed admirers. The “gift” weighed more than it should, prompting him to alert authorities.

Police experts verified that it was indeed an explosive device, set to detonate when the box was opened. It was attributed to ETA because its construction was similar to other bombs found in ETA hideouts and storehouses.

Robert Ménard, secretary general of RSF, a hundred-year-old organisation based in Paris, said “this terrorist act, which was particularly cowardly, puts the safety of all Spanish journalists at risk.”

The condemnation of the attack was unanimous among journalist, media and professional groups, political parties and the government, with the exception of the Euskal Herritarrok political coalition, which is closely linked with ETA.

Eusko Alkartasuna, a nationalist party that is part of the Basque Country’s governing coalition, asked ETA “to disappear once and for all and to stop trying to impose its ideas on society through methods that are not strictly peaceful and democratic.”

“ETA inflicts terrible damage to freedoms of expression,” said Iñaki Anasagasti, spokesman for the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which heads this moderate Basque coalition.

Tuesday, Josu Imaz, on behalf of the Basque government, expressed his “most emphatic condemnation of each and every act of violence.” The use of violence is not only ethically unjustifiable, it is politically useless and unacceptable, he added.

After maintaining a cease-fire for 19 months, ETA broke the peace last January when its operatives killed an army officer in Madrid when they detonated a car-bomb.

This bomb attempt is not the first ETA has launched against journalists. The group is blamed for placing an incendiary device in the home of the parents of ‘El Correo’ editor-in-chief in the Basque city of Bilbao last week.

In September 1999, an alleged ETA bomb went off in the home of the Navarra correspondent for the Madrid-based ‘El País’ newspaper. And in 1997 the ETA is blamed for burning the home of Carmen Gurruchaga, a journalist for ‘El Mundo’ daily, who had to leave the Basque city of San Sebastian and relocate to Madrid.

The section of journalists at the Workers Commissions (CC.OO) trade union warned Tuesday that “freedom of expression does not permit blackmail” and that “the good health of democracy is tied to the defence of honest and free information against those who try to silence ideas with their guns.”

RSF, meanwhile, also emphasised that PNV president, Xavier Arzallus, launched his own attack a few weeks ago against several communications media, in particular El Correo, El País, and ABC newspapers, accusing specific reporters of being “anti-Basque nationalists.”

Ménard indicated that one must keep in mind that “numerous intellectuals have recently hurled threats against the press, threats that created a climate ripe for terrorist acts.”

Herrera, who won several prizes in recent years, including the International Press Club award for best work in radio journalism, asserted he would continue practising his profession.

The journalist said, “there is the impression that some political groups point and then the terrorists act,” a statement interpreted as an allusion to Arzallus.

Herrera added that, apparently, “they are pointing to journalists as being responsible for the end of the world, especially those of us who do not negotiate on these issues.”

Regarding his future, the director said he is too old to change his discourse. “It would take many package bombs” to convince him to abandon the routine of directing his morning radio programme, which has the fastest growing audience in Spain.

“I am going to continue with journalism because it is the only thing I know, and I think I must continue doing it. Freedom is the best antidote against this band of savages,” Herrera concluded.