From January 2005 the Mercator Common Newsletter is a monthly newsletter. This way you will be kept informed with more recent and updated information.

Language Act for Northern Ireland Planned

Support the Euskarabidea initiative to ensure a proper place for the Basque language

October 2006 - The British government will introduce an Irish Language Act in Northern Ireland to promote the development of the Irish language, as part of the agreement which emerged from the peace talks in Saint Andrews, Scotland, on the 13th of October. Furthermore it proposes a possible bill of rights, which may include language rights. The St Andrews Agreement states that “the Government will introduce an Irish Language Act reflecting on the experience of Wales and Ireland and work with the incoming Executive to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language”. It also mentions that “The Government firmly believes in the need to enhance and develop the Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture and will support the incoming Executive in taking this forward”.

The Irish Language Act was one of Sinn Féin’s demands going into the talks but the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, is worried about the Irish Language Act being used as a vehicle to erode Britishness in the region. Moreover, the DUP has said that they will take all necessary steps to ensure that money is not ‘wasted’ on Irish language schemes. In contrast with this statements the SDLP, which lost ground on the last round of Stormont elections in 2003, has said that “unionist politicians need to stop using the Irish language as a political football in blatant point scoring exercises”.

The promises of new legislation can be considered as an important achievement for the Irish Language umbrella organisation POBAL, which has been long campaigning for new legislation. In a document published earlier in 2006 with the title “The Irish Language Act NI” they proposed a strong, rights based Irish language Act that would clarify and strengthen the rights of Irish speakers throughout the north to a range of Irish language services in areas such as education, the courts and employment. Janet Muller, Chief Executive POBAL, said that currently, “there are no domestic legal protections for the Irish language. The north of Ireland is the only place in British isles where the primary indigenous language is in this position”. Thus, the document has certainly revolutionised the debate around the needs of the Irish speaking community.

Legislation news - ML

• Immigration, Language Rights and Social Cohesion Tackled in Catalonia [+]
• Existence of Macedonian Language denied by Greek Authorities [+]
• The Duty to Know Basque in Courts Declared Unconstitutional [+]
• Young Ethnic Romas Ask for State University in Mother Tongue (Divers news bulletin) [+]
• Language Reform in Turkey Completely Insufficient, Says IHF [+]

Media news - MM

• BBC and S4C Announce New Strategic Partnership [+]
• Council of Europe publishes Report on indigenous minority languages in Sweden [+]
• Etxepare Euskal Institutua Basque Institute: a tool for the external dissemination of Basque language and culture [+]
• Mercator Media represented at National Forum for Language Minorities in Trento [+]
• Islay Gaelic Project launches Website [+] [^]

Media news - MM

BBC and S4C Announce New Strategic Partnership
The BBC Governors and the S4C Authority (the body regulating the Welsh-language broadcaster S4C) announced a new strategic partnership on October 17th for the development of programming and services for Welsh language television audiences. The governing bodies described the settlement as a “significant milestone” in the relationship between the two public service broadcasters.

The agreement sets out how the BBC will strengthen and extend its support for S4C over the next three years as the Welsh language channel implements its programme strategy in the run-up to digital switchover in Wales in 2009.

The BBC has a statutory duty to provide S4C with over 10 hours of Welsh programming each week - made by BBC Wales and funded by the licence fee. The BBC's current contribution includes the international news service, Newyddion, and the daily drama, Pobol y Cwm.

• increase its annual spend on programme-making for S4C from just under £22m in 2006/07 to just over £25m by 2008/09;
• increase the number of programmes it produces for S4C. Detailed programming plans are currently being discussed with S4C;
• establish a joint planning framework with S4C that details how the two broadcasters will discuss and agree which programmes the BBC contributes to S4C;
• provide, for the first time, BBC Wales-produced programmes on S4C's broadband and on-demand services;
• share its annual spending plans with S4C in advance. Hitherto, the BBC has only published financial information retrospectively in its Annual Report.

The new agreement reflects the provisions of this year's Government White Paper on the future of the BBC. The agreement also addresses the challenges set out in the Laughton Report to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in 2004 and last year's review of public service television broadcasting by Ofcom, the UK’s regulatory body for media and communications. The partnership will also require the BBC Governors and S4C Authority to develop performance targets and indicators to measure success for audiences.

The Chairman of the BBC, Michael Grade, said: “BBC Wales's programmes have played a major role in the success of S4C for many years. We are delighted that this new partnership will strengthen and extend the BBC's contribution. I'm certain Welsh language audiences will reap the benefits.”

The Chairman of S4C, John Walter Jones, said: “The new partnership provides a welcome new chapter in the relationship between S4C and the BBC. We are grateful to the BBC for the extensive support enshrined in this settlement.”

The Controller of BBC Wales, Menna Richards, said: “Digital developments pose enormous challenges and opportunities for all Welsh language media. By working closely together, in the spirit of this new agreement, the BBC and S4C stand the very best chance of strengthening and extending Welsh language services for audiences of all ages.”

The Chief Executive of S4C, Iona Jones, said: “This is excellent news for Welsh language audiences who will benefit from the expansion of the BBC's contribution to S4C on television and on line.” [^]

Council of Europe publishes Report on indigenous minority languages in Sweden
The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers has published the second report on the situation of indigenous minority languages in Sweden.

In the report the Council of Europe calls on Sweden to extend the existing administrative areas for Finnish and Sámi, in accordance with the proposals of the Government Commission for the Finnish and South Sámi Languages set up by the Swedish authorities.

It recommends that the authorities should also adopt more specific legislation on minority languages and establish a national agency responsible for supervising its implementation at the municipal level.

The report was drawn up by a committee of independent experts (COMEX) which evaluates the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Further to the report, the Committee of Ministers has adopted a series of recommendations addressed to Sweden.

• better access to education in minority languages,
• adoption of innovative measures for the maintenance of the highly endangered South Sámi language,
• steps to increase awareness and understanding concerning minority languages in Swedish society at large.

The full text of the report and the Committee of Ministers’ recommendations can be downloaded from the Charter's website: http://www.coe.int/minlang ("Reports and Recommendations" section).

Source: Eurolang [^]

Etxepare Euskal Institutua Basque Institute: a tool for the external dissemination of Basque language and culture
The Basque Government has approved the bill for setting up and developing the Etxepare Euskal Institua Basque Institute, which will be responsible for disseminating Basque language and culture in the world, and has referred this bill to Parliament, so that the relevant legal procedure may get underway. The purpose of this new law, which will regulate the setting up and development of the cultural institute under the name of the writer Bernat Etxepare, thus fulfilling his motto "jalgi hadi mundura" (open yourself up to the world), is to disseminate and provide an international profile for Basque language and culture. The bill to establish the cultural institute and the development of the Etxepare Euskal Institutua Basque Institute is among the commitments to legislation on the part of the Basque Government; owing to the importance of the Etxepare Institute's aims, the Basque Government has wanted its establishment and development to be governed by parliamentary law.

The Etxepare Euskal Institutua Basque Institute will be a public entity governed by private law, with its own legal status and attached to the Department of Culture, and its aim will be to disseminate and promote Basque language and culture by taking on work which has previously been carried out by different bodies in the Basque Government in linguistic fields (programa euskara munduan, university assistantships) and cultural ones (literature, the world of publishing, audiovisuals and fine arts, etc.), in collaboration with different cultural agents and sectors.

The Etxepare Euskal Institutua Basque Institute will be set up as a public entity governed by private law, with its own legal status and attached to the Department of Culture. The head office of the Etxepare Euskal Institutua Basque Institute is in Donostia-San Sebastián and new technologies will play a major role in its work involving the promotion of Basque language and culture. In any event and in order to fulfil its aims, the Etxepare Institute will be able to have a network of centres at its disposal around the world, whereby it may participate - with prior authorization from the Governing Board - in trading companies, foundations or non-profit-making entities, where appropriate. [^]

Mercator Media represented at National Forum for Language Minorities in Trento
From the 5 to the 7 October in Trento, Italy, a National Forum for Language Minorities was held by the provincial government with the theme of ‘Communicating Identity’. Mercator Media was represented by George Jones who paricipated in discussions on the relationship between the media and language minorities and the image of minorities presented in the media. The region of Trento is home to speakers of Cimbrian, Ladin and Mòcheno and delegates had the opportunity to visit areas inhabited by these last two. The conference had a wide international dimension and included delegates from Friesland, the Basque Country, Asturias and Wales as well as other regions of Italy. [^]

Islay Gaelic Project launches Website
The project Seanchas Ìle based at Ionad Chaluim Chille, the Gaelic college on the island of Ìle (Islay) in the inner Hebrides, has recently launched a new web site at www.seanchas-ile.net with the aim of promoting the Gaelic of the island. Seanchas Ìle is a two-year project invloving the gathering and recording of Islay Gaelic from the island’s people. So far, material gathered includes local stories, songs, poetry and proverbs along with people’s life stories and accounts of how life on the island has changed since the beginning of the 20th century. The web site offers information about the project itself and sound files of some of the collected material. In addition, there will be transcripts and translations of every file. There is also a list of Islay Gaelic words. [^]

Book published on Macedonian Minority in Greece

A book has recently appeared on The Communist Party of Greece and the Macedonian national problem 1918-1940 written by Ireneusz Adam Slupkov. More details of content and how to order can be found at http://www.maknews.com/html/articles/slupkov/slupkov.html

Article on minority languages in 23 languages by Mercator Education

A promising future for the Basque language

The signatories of the following declaration are united by our efforts in support of the Basque language. Notwithstanding the ideological and political diversity that exists among us, we are all concerned for the normalisation of Basque and are fully convinced that the present political occasion represents an important opportunity for the Basque language to achieve the social position it deserves.

Faced with the ongoing political process, we reiterate the same sense of optimism with which we have worked to support Basque throughout all these many years past. Given the political options to guarantee language rights in the course of the present process and to establish joint measures to promote Basque language normalisation, we hereby declare our willingness to spare no effort and bring all our available resources to bear along the road opening up before us. Therefore, in view of the need for the whole of society to be committed in the current situation, we proclaim our commitment and offer our viewpoint.

1. We hereby proclaim our firm commitment to make efforts to support the process founded upon dialogue and human rights. We believe that as individuals and social agents we should play an important role in these developments.

2. The solution of the conflict must be based on the individual and collective rights of the people, among which language rights constitute a cornerstone since they are necessary in order to ensure a dignified existence for the individual and the language community, and because inasmuch as Basques' decisions are to be respected in this process, the right to normalisation of the Basque language throughout the Basque Country without outside interference must also be recognised.

3. The centuries-long practice of turning the Basques into a minority language group must end. We therefore hold that the time has come to do away with legislation aimed at impeding Basque language normalisation. Hence for the political process it is necessary to make Basque normalisation possible, and we all hereby undertake a commitment to work to support this.

4. This is everyone's concern: we will not shirk our obligation, and likewise call on each and every participant at each and every stage of the resolution process to do the same in accordance with their respective levels of responsibility.

Basque Country, June 2006

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

We invite all language workers around the world to join us by showing their support for the Euskarabidea initiative. You may do so by sending an e-mail message such as the following to: kanpo@behatokia.org

Visit http://www.behatokia.org/ for further information [^]

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