“We are talking about the right of the speaking community to see itself reflected in Basque, of necessity, of desire. In the present of any modern society, in the future of any culture, the role of the media is key”, says the joint editorial signed by almost 100 non-public Basque media, published last February. Over the past 30 years, the Basque non-public media has become an important sector dedicated to guaranteeing consumer rights: More than 100 media outlets (including the press, radio, television and the Internet) employ more than 620 people, all of whom have a budget of more than 27 million euros a year. Around 7 million euros are generated and paid directly through social security and taxes.

In terms of audience, they attract a strong potential market, since according to the study carried out by the CIES research center in 2007, 450,000 people at some point consume Basque media, which represents 57% of the Basques. More specifically, the number of consumers of the Basque media would be as follows: the radio and television have a total audience of 342,000 and the publications and daily press 407,000. This means that, in view of the fact that we would include the EITB in the bag of radio and television stations, there are more non-public consumers than public media. What’s more, the CIES survey also includes the assessment of consumers: in the case of non-public media, readers have been given a “high level of compliance” (New) and an “excellent level” (Basque magazines); in the case of public media, the assessments received have been “an aspect to improve” (Euskadi Joven), “moderate level of compliance” (Euskadi Radio) and “excellent level” (ETB1) – see the compilation of data on the last page. In view of this, the Government concludes in its report that those who follow the media only in Basque do so not only because of affective attachment – “the pro-Basque militancy links me to the media that use this language” – but because they make a positive assessment of the media.

But despite the positive consumption and valuation of non-public media, the economic support of the administration is not channeled in the proportion that the data indicate, at all. This year, non-public media has received a total grant of 7,500,000 euros, while EITB alone has obtained 173 million euros through the Government. The EITB has 900 employees and is said to employ approximately 600 others indirectly – in the Basque and Basque media. To give more concrete examples, the ETB1 Afternoon Session (made up of a working group of 19 people) has a budget of 11,000 euros per programme and the budget from September to December is 728,000 euros. As for the Old Sessions that have been held until recently in ETB2 (made up of a working group of 24 people), the cost was 15,500 euros per programme and the budget from September to December was 728,000 euros.

In terms of efficiency, beyond the imbalance between public and non-public media, the distribution of public investment has more edges.

Not enough to help?

That the Basque language deserves special attention and that the role of the media in its promotion and dissemination is fundamental. This is the repeated call of the public institutions and most of the political parties. A great contribution is recognized to the media, its importance in the promotion of the Basque language is highlighted, but subsidies have always been far below their needs, at least among the non-public media –not to mention in Navarre and the Basque Country–. Aid has now been reduced in a number of institutions under the pretext of the crisis. After all, it is not considered a strategic sector, because the resources to support those that the institutions really consider a strategic sector have increased in general. The editorial published by the media argues that: “During the rescue of banks, cars, furniture and electrons, we also proclaim a stronger support. We have often been reproached that we live on public money, both Basque culture and the Basque media, perhaps even to the point of creating the complex. Now, on the other hand, it is clearer than ever how, in areas and projects that are considered key, public institutions channel funds, whether public or private.”

The incentive and renove schemes provided to strengthen economic and/or automotive efforts to save banks are known. In this sense, the French government’s plan is interesting: It will give away more than 210,000 seven-month subscriptions from 59 exhibitors to 18- and 24-year-olds. Why not encourage such models in our country to stimulate consumption?
On the other hand, public investments have a different goal. For the San Mames Barria stadium, for example, 112 million euros will be contributed by the public administration and another 50 BBK savings banks. Real was also provided with 4.5 million euros in the 2007-2011 management plan of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, 1.5 million from the 2010 budget and 1.2 million in institutional advertising to “promote the Basque language, social values, and image of the Historical Territory of Gipuzkoa”. The public spending of the incinerator that they want to establish in the bridges can reach up to 580 million euros, and a single kilometre of the Basque Y railway project, which is channeled from public institutions to all non-public Basque media in four years –in the years 2012-2013, it is expected that they will have to allocate 1 billion euros to AHT. The events organized by the Government during the Euskadi Week of the Shanghai Universal Exposition have cost the inhabitants of the Basque Country almost 973,000 euros. The 10 million directed by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa in 2010 to strengthen the competitiveness of companies have been distributed among dozens of companies (Arizaga, Bastarrika and CIA SA, 300,000 euros; Bellota Herramientas SA, 300,000 euros; Hozper S. I'm talking about Coop. 198,000 euros...), but there is no Basque media or communication company among them. In this year’s investments, the Basque Government has earmarked 7 million for culture and 21.2 million for housing, 4 for administrative innovation and 59 for research and development, among others. These are just a few examples.

Advertising as support

Another criticism of the non-public Basque media is that the institutions do not make enough publicity in the Basque media. Institutional advertising moves a lot of money and is an economic support, but it is the means of giving birth that benefit from it, because it is in them that the administration puts advertising, without taking into account the strength of the Basque media to reach the Basques. In the non-public Basque media, only departments related mainly to the Basque language place advertising in general. Thus, the right of Basques to receive publicity in Basque, in general, not only related to Basque subjects, is not guaranteed and positive discrimination against Basque is not taken into account. What is more, it does not even take advantage of its practical sense, since, as mentioned above, these media contain 450,000 receptors.

Last year, the General Assemblies of Gipuzkoa asked the Provincial Council to place 15% of the advertising in the Basque media, but the decision has not been followed, it has only been directed to one or several media outlets, or it has ended up being subject to the criteria of the responsible department. Therefore, the non-public Basque media have proclaimed that, given the sociolinguistic reality, all public institutions legally distribute 25% of their advertising among the Basque media.

In this context, we must not forget the crisis. The economic downturn has hit hard on everything, even in the communication sector. To this we must add the media crisis, the need for investment to adapt to the Internet and new technologies. We have many examples at international level: The economic bankruptcy of the Sun-Times in the United Kingdom, the restructuring of The New York Times and the numerous layoffs – and office closures – of The Washington Post, Boston Globe and Baltimore Sun newspapers in the United States, forced by the debts of the Prisa group to close Localia TV and CNN+ in Spain... In our country too, the impact of the crisis on advertising and sales is evident, and the media are suffering. This is reflected in the closure of the magazines Geu Gasteiz, Maxixatz and Chaparro and the television Ttipi Ttapa, the end of the paper edition of the supplement Mugalera, the restructuring of Nueva y Palabras, the change of management of the Nabarra apparition and the restructuring of the monthly magazine Otamotz.

So that there are no more examples of this type, and to continue improving with sufficient resources in the path of communication, the need for support of non-public Basque media is evident. They say so to public institutions.

The media campaign

In July 2010, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council gathered a number of Basque language media to reflect on the situation in the sector and to see how it could organize itself. This initiative served to highlight the serious moment in which the sector lived and share a series of reflections. There has been no succession of initiatives in this format.

But some of the media gathered at these meetings agreed on the need to meet in another row and reflect on the situation in the sector. Luz, Nueva, Once Televisión and Encuentro met on the first occasion and convened a meeting of the non-public media of the Basque Country on November 30, 2010. A dozen media people gathered at Martin Ugalde Park and decided to launch a public campaign on the situation of the sector. The focus was this: the sector has something to think about, but the priority at the moment is to respond to the state of emergency and to do so, it is essential to make progress in the subsidies and public advertising that are essential today.

After collecting almost total support from the sector, the campaign was launched by the joint editorial “Media in Basque, time for another leap”, held on February 1. On February 15, more than 50 media outlets made a public appearance in San Sebastián to provide data on the significant size of non-public media in Basque, among others.

At the moment, representatives of the media (Luz, Nueva, Bidasoa Media, Goiena and Encuentro) are meeting with the public parties and institutions of the Basque society. They are informed of the situation in the sector, as well as the specific subsidies and requirements that they consider necessary in the future. There are some, but this can be summed up:

Although the situation in the territorial sector is very different, in general, an increase of 25% of subsidies is required and their transition from the system of public calls for proposals to the system of agreements.

In the field of advertising, it is requested that 25% of the spending of institutions on advertising campaigns be directed to the Basque media. The demand is not built on the vacuum, it is an old proclamation, but it has again been precipitated by the decision of the General Assemblies of Gipuzkoa in the summer of 2010.

In addition, the media must make a great effort to adapt to Intertet and the new technologies and – as is the case in other sectors – they have requested special subsidies for this.

To deal with all this, the sector has offered to set up a table between the media and the institutions, and it will be necessary to see what the representatives of the institutions respond to.