Once they gave Argia a prize and in the time they offered us to say something, besides thanking him for the prize, I said that the public authorities do not take good care of the non-public media in Basque.

And I said, among other things, that the media in Basque deserved the same respect as household appliances, furniture or wheels of cars. Because of the crisis, they and other sectors were receiving aid with a lot of money, but we were not. In our case, aid was declining.

The fact is that, after my speech, already in the evening, a boss approached me angry and told me that he did not like my speech at all, that they were making a great effort and that my assessments did not seem fair to him. He added that these kinds of events are not a place to say that, that that was done in a festive atmosphere, that we were going to have fun there, and that it was out of place.

I replied that I did not agree with what I was saying, that what I was saying was critical, but always with respect, and yes, that these kinds of acts are also places of reflection and criticism.

Now I know that I did it well, that the path of cuts is being imposed here and there and that we will have to continue to claim that we need more. And we continue to think about why we are so insignificant on the side of roads or railways, or on the side of those precious and expensive cultural equipment that we have.

In 2011, we in the sector have held various meetings with the authorities and party leaders, but in general I believe that they do not realise the situation, they do not realise the enormous effort involved in bringing forward the non-public media in Euskera; which may mean the disappearance of some.

Among other things, we asked for 25% more subsidies for this year. “What more sturdy leather, asking for a quarter more in these times!” you would think. But that 25% more does not reach the EUR 2 million among all the institutions… in a sector that has more than 600 working people. For example, the construction of Tabakalera will cost EUR 56 million. What about food every year?Over
the past 20 years we have taken great strides in the media in Basque, both in the supply and in the number of consumers. But we're very fragile, like many of the ecosystems that are so precious and necessary in the world: they have a hard time training them and they can disappear quickly. Who, then, will be shattered by the crisis on the next bite? From the world of communication we say that we have two crises: the change of business model and the current economic crisis. But no, there is a third: before that is our usual crisis, the non-public media in Euskera have always lived through the crisis.

And yet, I think we have reason to be happy. The crisis has brought the sector together, we have worked together for a year. Yes, I know that a lot of assessments can be made, but among us most of the time so far they have been positive. From now on it can be harder, because we have to start defining it more, because we have the belt tightened and it probably squeezes us more. Whatever we do, we in Argia believe that we must continue to keep the spaces open to collaboration. Let's see if we are capable.

A call to the institutions, at least those that have the most will, to those of the CAPV: be reasonable and that HAKOBA should meet with the media and that things should be decided with meaning and not by each institution separately. It is a coordinating institution, which meets and puts the subsidies policies in a proper and constructive direction.

And I also wanted to talk about peace, a new situation, which is also reflected here today. I'm not going to expand, I'm just going to say that this is how we all live a lot better and that that has extraordinary value. Those who suffer the most know better. But this is not over. An orderly ending of ETA is needed to channel technical and political problems, and that is best done with an honest and effective peace process. As a society, as a people, we have before us a great opportunity, to see if we are able to make good use of ourselves.

This is a conference offered before the ARGIA Awards are delivered.