Basques, strangers on screens
It has just been concluded if we look at the budget, the programming, the number of spectators and the media impact that constitutes the most important audiovisual event in the Basque Country: San Sebastian Festival. And in this edition, once again, we Basques have been second-class citizens.
Only 10% of the programming was seen in Basque, bilingual or subtitled Basque. The festival’s regulation clearly states in its article 6 that all performances must be offered in Spanish or Spanish. There are no references to Basque. A festival with a budget of 8M€ (more than half of our pockets) discriminates against Basques. Would we accept in the same way that public money is granted to an act promoting discrimination on the grounds of gender or race? That's my question.
The context of the festival seemed to me to be a perfect excuse to review the serious situation of the Basque people in the audiovisual media, in general, and to look ahead to reality.
If we jumped from the festival to the cinemas, we would see that the violation of rights suffered by the Basques in: Only 1% of films offered annually in cinemas throughout the Basque Country are in Basque (2.3% in CAPV). Four or five films in Basque manage to reach the halls and 12 films folded for children. Nor are there any signs of international success of films dubbed or subtitled to the Basque language. The desert.
In streaming platforms that have become the main means to watch movies and series, the Basque offer does not reach 0.1%. It is true that in this last area the popular initiative has mobilized parties, institutions and companies, and some progress has been made on the two platforms that dominate the market; a year ago on Netflix you could watch 3 movies in Basque or with subtitles in Basque, today 40. They've gone from Primevideon's 1 to 44. There's something.
However, the presence of the Basque Country on the different screens and supports that dominate our leisure (smartphones, tablets, television, cinema, computer...) remains null, and I believe that it is having a great influence on the use of language (without denying the existence of other factors). Recent research has shown that the use of Euskera in canteens and backyards is decreasing. Also, the use of Euskera in the street, between 2006 and 2021, has decreased by more than one point in the Basque Country. In addition, in the last 5 years this decrease has been very pronounced in the municipalities of Euskaldunes. Data enabling all alarms to be switched on.
I'm going to tell you a related anecdote. Two weeks after starting the course, I found our 3-year-old son playing in Spanish in the room.
“Hey potoko, from you to you?” You know that in our house you are in Basque…! His answer left me frozen. “Ask me dad, I’m playing!
The emergency is obvious. Not only in the Basque families of the urban centers, but also in the respiratory zones it is more and more frequent that the crews of fathers and mothers, even if they work in Euskera in the plaza, listen to the children play in Spanish to the superheroes or whatever. Is it the ghost of linguistic substitution (Language Shift)?
We need renewed and bold language policies adapted to the current situation. In all areas, but especially in the audiovisual field: it is urgent that the institutions adopt new criteria, structures and laws that revolutionise the situation, not only because they have to be guarantors of linguistic rights, but because the future of the language itself is at stake. Among other things, the laws of the Basque Audiovisual and Cinema, and the Audiovisual Council that drafts and executes them.
Alex Aginagalde, member of the platform Apantallamiento Euskaraz
Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora
ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.
There are those who, being a brilliant brain, with definitions of "little detail," are experts in transforming and transforming the same thing, in other words. It was yours and it has been a project in eternum that has been repeated for decades. This was one of the main reasons to... [+]
On 26 December, during an air strike, the Israeli Army killed five Palestinian journalists trying to reach the city. They killed 130 Palestinian journalists. This news has reminded me of a couple of things, the first, the persecution of true journalists in any part of the world,... [+]
In recent months I have had to work in a number of institutes and, at some point, I have had to talk to the students about the possibilities offered by the labour market. The typology of the students is varied and in the same city varies a lot from one neighborhood to another,... [+]
The girl who appears in the center of photography, which can hardly be considered historical, is writing a list of adjectives: I, you, he, we, you, they. Looking down, I couldn't see what his gaze looked like.
Insensitive to the work of the photographer, you, slowly and... [+]
He forgives the oak trees, oak trees, oaks, herons, strawberries, dressings, chestnuts, birch, gorostidias, chamomiles, pine trees and all the societies of the trees, but today the hayedo has a date on the occasion of the celebrations of the winter border.
It is easier for me... [+]
Euskaraldia comes back. Apparently, it will be in the spring of next year. They have already presented it and the truth is that it has surprised me; not Euskaraldia himself, but his motto: We'll do it by moving around.
The first time I have read or heard it, the title of the... [+]
Novelty is usually one of the most heard words associated with the Durango Fair. The novelty is there, and here's the novelty. However, in some cases it is sufficient to give a different aspect to the previous one to paste that label. The CDs and remastered reeditions with... [+]
The Basque country has a very large water flow in the shortage. Every local drop curls and revives our culture. Offer a sea of water to that thirst. Although the Basque Country has come from a deep and dark well, we have all drawn our sample of salt water and turned it into a... [+]
Young people start consuming pornography before, as porn is their only sex education. How on earth have we come here?
Today, it has to be acknowledged that thanks to the Internet it is much easier to see pornography. Unfortunately, through a click, the 7-9 year-old boy comes to... [+]
On 5 December last, pp presented in the Parliament of Navarra a proposal for a law to decouple the processes of functionalization of the Secretariat and Intervention positions of the local entities of Navarra. If this were to happen, about 30 people would achieve well-deserved... [+]
This year marks the 51st anniversary of the United Nations proclamation of International Human Rights Day on 10 December. This date has become important in Euskal Herria and the Human Rights Observatory of Euskal Herria wants to offer some elements of reflection.
Progress on... [+]
Once upon a time the people became a repository of culture. Over time, the restrictive measures taken by the world authorities against any form of cultural expression were extinguishing the flame, creativity and imagination of peoples, as a candle gradually. However, a small but... [+]
The presence of Elon Musk in the media advances like a rocket after landing in the garden of the White House. Other powers, apparently, have been altered by the power and influence it is acquiring, and to reduce its influence, have charged the X network. In recent weeks, media... [+]