Here's Hekimen's full review on November 8:

"The Basque media of popular initiative have been contributing for many years to the normalization of the Basque Country, to the Basque communication system and, in general, to the Basque Country. The social function that we have fulfilled and that we now fulfil is important. During all these years, recognition and gratitude for the work done have come mainly from the citizens and, to a large extent, we have been able to make progress thanks to citizenship. We have been able to deal with all kinds of crises, both economic and non-economic, thanks to the help and contribution of the citizens.

Of course, we have also received contributions from the various administrations, but they have not responded to the needs of the sector and have not sought to ensure the stability of the sector. In general, they have been very variable depending on the budgets and/or priorities of each moment.

In order to resolve this situation, we have recently been working with the various administrations on the construction of a new model of subsidy based on the needs of the sector and the process, with its ups and downs, is about to begin to be fruitful. The various administrations have recognised some historical demands of the sector (recognition of the strategic nature of the work carried out and of the sector itself, the need to dignify and protect the Basque media system, the system of subsidies based on cost analysis, the need for more resources to ensure stability …) and have already taken the first steps in shaping a new model that responds to some of these demands. Despite the fact that in general and in some areas of the sector there are points of improvement (television, radio…), Hekimen considers that the first proposal prepared by the Basque Government and the Deputies can be a good starting point for starting to implement this new model of subsidy. In any case, it will be necessary to elaborate and agree on the details and amounts of the calls for grants, in order to achieve the final objective of this whole process, that is, to guarantee the stability of the media in Basque, its validity or not.

The Basque Government and the three Foreign Ministers are already working on calls for grants based on the same criteria and we will soon see whether the effort made so far is satisfactory. On the other hand, given the long delay in the process, the administrations should also provide for measures to prevent the damage that will result from the delay in the calls for grants.

In any case, this shared work on subsidies is only one of the challenges of the sector. An important and essential step for the sector to address other challenges, but also to address other challenges (increasing the number of recipients, new resources to overcome deficiencies, distribution of public advertising, opening up to new areas, promotion, innovation, investments…) cooperation will be essential.