(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Spanish Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja, and to the councillor of the interior of the Basque government, Xabier Balza, RSF expressed its concern about the bomb attack at the offices of the Basque newspaper “El Correo”. “This (attack) represents yet another intimidation tactic towards non-nationalistic media. We ask that […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Spanish Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja, and to the councillor of the interior of the Basque government, Xabier Balza, RSF expressed its concern about the bomb attack at the offices of the Basque newspaper “El Correo”. “This (attack) represents yet another intimidation tactic towards non-nationalistic media. We ask that you increase security measures to protect threatened information professionals and media,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. In a report titled “Journalists in ETA’s line of fire”, released in June 2000, RSF noted that the offices of “El Correo” and the paper’s journalists appeared on the “blacklists” of radical nationalist Basques. RSF had called on separatist political leaders to stop targeting journalists as “enemies” (see IFEX alert of 5 July 2000).
According to information obtained by RSF, on 7 July, at around 7:30 p.m. (local time), a bomb, which was hidden in a backpack, exploded at the front door of the offices of the newspaper “El Correo”, in Vitoria (in the Basque Country’s north). The explosion was of weak intensity and did material damage, but no one was injured in the attack. The backpack was found by a journalist of the daily, who alerted his colleagues. The journalists were forced to stay inside while firefighters aired out the building, as the fire gave off a great deal of smoke. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The El Correo press group has already been the victim of three separate Molotov cocktail attacks, including one on 14 May at the offices of the regional daily “El Diario Vasco”. On 21 March, an explosive device caused material damage to journalist Pedro Briongos’ parents’ home. Briongos is a Bilbao-based “El Correo” correspondent. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, who had been receiving threats, exiled himself in Madrid (see IFEX alerts of 29, 28 and 22 March 2000).
RSF recalled that there have been fourteen serious attacks against journalists since 1997 in the Spanish Basque Country. On 7 May, José Luis Lopez de la Calle, a contributor to the Basque regional edition of the daily “El Mundo”, was shot and killed in the street, in the town of Andoain, where he lived (see IFEX alerts of 10 and 8 May 2000). About 100 journalists and publishers are under police or private protection in the Basque Country and in Madrid, and a dozen others are in self-imposed exile. Several media have been forced to take security precautions and install bombproof windows and metal detectors.
