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Information on the
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Updated Wednesday, August 28, 2002 © Euskalinfo
2000-2002
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Euskal gatazkari buruzko
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euskalinfo, basque country, basque, spanish government, country, media, England
Euskalinfo is a Basque collective based in England, committed to providing
the censored side of the Basque conflict.
Since the conservatives (PP) are in power, the media- always supporting those
in power and for an españolist project- has had a very special role in
maintaining the government's indiscriminate repression of the Basque left and
Basque nationalism.
This has included the Basque right nationalism too, which was previously very
respected because of its support of the Spanish government, but was ferociously
attacked by the government and the media when it joined forces with other Basque
parties in the Lizarra-Garazi pact (1998-1999), and Spanish unity was questioned.
The Spanish government has directed the media by providing the scripts and information
they needed immediately prior to repression campaigns. This manipulation and
media control has provoked the sacking of radio directors (Mallorca & Castello)
of television directors (TeleMadrid) and of radio programs, etc. The Spanish
media is uniform and there is no room for discrepancy.
In 1998 the Spanish government closed the Basque paper and radio station Egin,
after years of boycott and attack (imprisonment of journalists, etc). It also
closed the magazine Ardibeltza in 2001 after- again- a huge media campaign.
The editor was imprisoned from January to June 2001 without a sentence and after
suffering two heart attacks.
The Spanish government is taking advantage of the Spaniards' attitude towards
ETA to impose their version of the truth, the only version we find everywhere
else, including Britain. Because of this, we decided to launch Euskalinfo. From
translating news we went on to write about different events, created a web page
and an e-mail list. We hope to produce a printed version in the near future.
Euskalinfo is aware of the difficult situation Euskal Herria (Basque Country)
is going through. But as well as questioning the official information we believe
the conflict won't be solved while the other side of the coin (ie: the government's
media, social, political and military repression) is not unveiled. Aware of
the lack of real information in English, Euskalinfo has created that space.
Euskalinfo doesn't focus on high-profile events, such as bombings, because these
get enough publicity in the Basque Country and here too. Because of Euskalinfo's
commitment to providing another side of the Basque conflict we are not interested
in creating platforms for any party but only to expose the abuses and injustices
that the Spanish and the French governments commit in the area.
