Duve concerned about violent attacks against journalists in Spain

VIENNA, 25 May 2001 (OSCE) - Freimut Duve, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, expressed his great concern about the continuing violence against journalists in Spain to the Permanent Council yesterday.

Emilio Oleaga Olejabarrieta, the Financial Director of the newspaper Diario Vasco, who was killed on 24 May, is the most recent victim of terror attacks by the separatist group 'Euskadi Ta Askatasuna' (ETA). On 15 May 2001, Gorka Landaburu, a correspondent for Cambio 16 and Radio France, was wounded by a package bomb he received at his home in Zarauz in the north of the Basque country.

"Censorship by killing, the ultimate form of media censorship, has become an efficient instrument in the hands of ETA in silencing those who are trying to report the truth", said Duve. Last year Jose Luis Lopez de Lacalle, a columnist for El Mundo, was killed. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly posthumously honoured him, together with the murdured Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze, with the 2001 Price for Journalism and Democracy. "The current media situation in the Basque region represents a major threat to freedom of expression in the European Union. Several journalists have been targeted and barely escaped with their lives", Duve stated.

"The intimidation of journalists based on ethnic radicalism is of major concern to my office", said Freimut Duve. "The misuse of media for violent ethnic propaganda, which is also present elsewhere in the OSCE region, can kill a democratic society. The OSCE needs to work very closely with its participating States to eradicate this threat".

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For further information please contact the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, tel. +43-1-512 21 45 - 0, fax +43-1-512 21 45 - 9, e-mail: pm-fom@osce.