Spain Shuts a Basque Newspaper

[Harold F. Schiffman]

New York Times,

February 21, 2003

Spain Shuts a Basque Newspaper, Accusing It of Aiding Separatists

By EMMA DALY

     MADRID, Feb. 20 The Spanish police ordered a Basque-language
newspaper to shut down today and arrested 10 members of its staff,
including the editor, accusing them of helping the violent separatist
group E.T.A. in its campaign for an independent Basque country. The dawn
arrests carried out by 300 officers and the closing of Euskaldunon
Egunkaria, the only Spanish newspaper printed solely in Euskara, the
Basque language, was part of a new government crackdown on E.T.A. and its
supporters.

On Wednesday, the police detained 14 people accused of belonging to
E.T.A., whose initials stand for Basque Homeland and Freedom in Euskara.
On Tuesday, 10 youths were arrested and accused of taking part in the
separatists' campaign of street violence. The search warrants authorized
by Judge Juan del Olmo accused the newspaper and its owners of "membership
of the terrorist organization or collaboration with the terrorist
organization E.T.A." It also said that E.T.A. "was involved in creating
and invigorating Euskaldunon Egunkaria and in naming executives" for the
newspaper as well as in financing it.

The accusations were strongly denied by the paper's deputy editor, Xabier
Lekuona, who was not among those detained. "There is absolutely no truth
to this," he said in a telephone interview.  "The paper is subsidized by
the Basque government and we are audited by them every year. These are
public accounts. There is no basis to the allegation that we are
laundering money for E.T.A."

He said that many of those detained were respected members of the Basque
news media and that the last big interview the paper carried was with
Fernando Savater, a leading opponent of E.T.A. and of Basque separatism.
"From the beginning we have defended our editorial independence," Mr.
Lekuona said. "Our aim has never been to support a political line but to
publish in Euskara." But the justice minister, Jos Mara Michavila, hailed
this "new operation against E.T.A." He told state radio that "this time it
is directed at those who, according to the judge, are instruments of
E.T.A. and alert the terrorists each time there is an operation against a
terrorist cell."

Egunkaria's editor, Martxelo Otamendi, was accused of "incitement to
murder" last year after publishing an interview with E.T.A. members.
Prosecutors linked the interview, published on June 6, 2001, to the
killing of Jos Javier Mgica, a member of a local council, by E.T.A. in
July. But moderate nationalists were swift to defend Egunkaria.

Markel Olano of the Basque Nationalist Party, which runs the regional
government and has provided almost $8 million in subsidies for the
newspaper, described the operation as "an attack not only on
Basque-language media but against the language itself and even Basque
society." The interior minister, ngel Acebes, rejected such criticism,
saying, "Those who say that this operation attacks freedom of expression
and the Basque language are wrong because it actually defends the Basques'
rights and freedoms."

The daily's staff of 150, who have received offers of help from most other
Basque newspapers, plan to fight back by publishing a paper on Friday.
"Our weapons have always been our words but today they used weapons to
silence our words," Mr Lekuona said. "Our response will be to get the
paper out on the streets tomorrow."