(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, RSF protested his decision to order the closure of the pro-independence Basque magazine “Ardi Beltza”, following the indictment of its director, Pepe Rei, for belonging to the armed organisation ETA. “Pepe Rei’s indictment is a legal procedure on which we do not wish to comment. […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, RSF protested his decision to order the closure of the pro-independence Basque magazine “Ardi Beltza”, following the indictment of its director, Pepe Rei, for belonging to the armed organisation ETA.
“Pepe Rei’s indictment is a legal procedure on which we do not wish to comment. Our organisation was one of the first to denounce his threatening attitude towards journalists. But the closure of a press organ is a dangerous decision for freedom of expression,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We ask that you reconsider this decision and authorise the magazine ‘Ardi Beltza’ to start publishing again,” added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, on 29 March 2001, Spanish journalist Rei, director of the pro-independence magazine “Ardi Beltza” (“black sheep” in the Basque language), was indicted by judge Garzon for “belonging to the armed organisation ETA”. Judge Garzon justified his decision to close the magazine “Ardi Beltza” because it is ”an instrument and vehicle for the assumed criminal activities” of its director.
In early November 2000, RSF denounced the distribution of a videocassette titled “Journalists: the Trading of Lies”, with the magazine “Ardi Beltza”, which denounced the role of the press in very harsh terms, claiming journalists were “being paid off by” the Spanish government. On 10 November, Aurora Intxausti, one of forty journalists who were specifically denounced in the videocassette, and her husband, journalist Juan Palomo, barely escaped a bomb attack at the front door of their home. The explosives could have killed the two journalists if they had fully detonated. The Spanish Basque government’s councillor of the interior said at the time that “without a doubt,” ETA was responsible for this latest attack. The assassination attempt closely followed the arrest of four assumed members of ETA’s “Viscaya” commando group during the night of 9 to 10 November, in Bilbao (Basque Country) (see IFEX alert of 13 November 2000).
RSF regularly denounces threats and attacks against Spanish journalists. The 2000 RSF – Fondation de France Prize was awarded to Spanish Basque journalist Carmen Gurruchaga from the daily “El Mundo”. A journalist with the “Basque Country” edition of “El Mundo”, she has been a victim of ETA terrorist violence on several occasions. Having received death threats, she decided to move to Madrid, where she continues to work for “El Mundo”, but under police protection, like about fifty other Spanish colleagues (see IFEX alert of 30 October 2000).
