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INPRIMATU
Why did the Ertzaintza violate the right to information?
Xabier Letona Biteri @xletona 2016ko ekainaren 22a

ARGIA journalist Gorka Bereziartua was attacked this time by the Ertzaintza, when he was gathering details of a meeting in Gipuzkoa Zutik. An ertzaina approached him as he recorded and prevented him from doing his job, throwing him to the ground in an attempt to take off the camera and breaking his pants and jersey. In the face of the aggression, Bereziartua openly declared to the ertzaina that he was a journalist, but the latter did not stop his impetus. However, it did prevent the journalist from continuing his work, leaving aside the possibility of collecting completely what happened. The Ertzaintza and the Department of the Interior of the Basque Government should therefore answer two simple questions: one, why was Bereziartua’s right to be informed of the facts frustrated? Two, why in such a violent way?

I have no hope of a satisfactory answer. ARGIA journalist Lander Arbelaitz suffered a similar situation in April 2013, even more so when he was reporting on the events of the Donostia popular wall. He then received the Rikardo Arrangi Prize for this work. Jeltzale Iñigo Iturrate responded in the Basque Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights: “The performance of the Ertzaintza has been exemplary.” On the contrary, the breaches of hope must always be left open, especially because many members of the same party that governs the interior have very different opinions about the right to information.

The Diputación de Bizkaia awarded the prize in May to Radio Euskadi for her work for "freedom and plurality" in her more than 70 years of career. Logically and logically, a senior EiTB position was made with the very happy prize: “Thanks to Euskadi Radio, the work of many people who put their physical condition at risk, freedom of information and ideas reaches all homes.”

Remove the name of the broadcaster and place the name of any media. The phrase is to sign by everyone who believes in freedom of information. But the ARGIA journalist was not allowed to reach every house with his audiovisual work. Why? What damage did it cause to the Ertzaintza? Or maybe the question is different, what damage was it doing to power?

The Ertzaintza and its political leaders must respond to this, but it is clear that it is entirely linked to the freedom of citizenship and that it is constantly being violated by the Ertzaintza – and by the Municipal Police of Donostia – with regard to the Gipuzkoa Zutik movement. What happened to Bereziartua is serious from the point of view of freedoms, but as serious as that is that the citizen cannot hold assemblies before the Deputation – or in the public space they decide – and that the Ertzaintza, on the excuse of identification, try to prevent it.

In 1992, the PSOE Minister of the same name launched the Corcuera Law. Among other things, the police opened the door wide open to identify citizens anywhere. The regression of rights became apparent in all parties except the PSOE, which valued it. Subsequently, the famous Mordaza Law has placed the right to information in the hands of the police: it is only recorded if the police so desire. That is what is happening in Gipuzkoa Zutik, whether it is a journalist or a citizen – who determines what it is to be a journalist – when the Ertzaintza and the Municipal Police prohibit recording at one and the other time. Almost everyone agrees that the Mordaza Law is also a great setback, except the pp and several police unions, which consider it a setback. In the case of the Ertzaintza, ErNE is being pressured to apply the Moorish Law. The Basque Parliament and the General Meetings of Gipuzkoa have just adopted resolutions contrary to this law. So how do we understand the parliamentary opposition and its subsequent implementation on the streets?

Without the care of citizens, journalists and civil society in general, the tendency to thaw rights is constant on the part of the power. That is why the mobile phone that used Bereziartua is so important, and that the Ertzaintza also wanted to take it away with desire.