Bulletin 55 - ML
Dossier 15 - ML
Working Papers 13 - ML

Participation in a seminar of TAIEX - ML
A new tool for regional dossiers
Digital Library European Minority Languages
New Web-editor ME
New Titles - ME | Books - ML

October

Occitan radio station authorised in Hérault [+]
Increase in private Slovenian radio programmes in Austria [+]
Asturian Minister for Culture presents plans for autonomous television channel [+]
Film on life of Galíndez to be released in Galician [+]
Motion submitted to the Swedish Parliament in favour of the Finnish language (Nordic Council) [+]
French government shows timid signs of interest in language diversity (Vieiros/Le Monde) [+]
Appelas lodged against the last decree on the use of Basque in the Administration of Navarre (Behatokia)[+]
Several complaints against the Spanish State for discriminating the Catalan language (Avui & Vilaweb) [+]
The Amazigh language to be thaught within Morocco's school system (AP) [+]

TV Breizh announces reduction in ‘regional’ programmes [+]
Spanish magazine Cambio 16 launches Basque language version (source: Eurolang) [+]
Constitutional amendments in Romania will widen language rights of national minorities (RFE/RL Newsline) [+]
Lingualia, a new multilingual portal for the promotion of minoritised languages [+]
First Catalan-language secondary school in France (Indymedia/Eurolang) [+]
CoE's Committee of Ministers: 2nd Recommendation on the implementation of the Charter in Norway [+]
European Parlilament passes Ebner resolution as special status for languages such as Catalan is rejected (Avui/Eurolang) [+]
Education reform in Latvia comes into force as it keeps raising concern (MINELRES-Minority Issues in Latvia) [+]

Occitan radio station authorised in Hérault
Radio Lenga d’Oc, an Occitan language station, was granted in October the frequency it had been seeking for some months in the Hérault region. The director of the station, Bruno Cécillon, said, “The Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel has granted us a temporary frequency for nine months which it will be possible to renew. It is a great victory because the battle has been tough. We have succeeded in demonstrating that a strong Occitan cultural presence was lacking in our region.” The radio station is run by the association Son e Resson Occitan, established ten years ago. The Occitan station, broadcast on 99.7, will be available in the Montpellier urban area. It is already available on the internet at www.radiolengadoc.com. In Languedoc-Roussillon a frequency had previously been obtained in Narbonna (Narbonne).

Increase in private Slovenian radio programmes in Austria
After lengthy discussions, a new scheme has been agreed with regard to the provision of Slovene radio programming in Austria. According to the new agreement, the public broadcasting body ORF wil produce eight hours per day of Slovene programming and broadcast it on a shared frequency. Radio Dva and Radio Agora (private ventures) will cover the remaining 16 hours of the daily schedule. For this they will receive nearly 200,000 euros per year from ORF.
On Februrary 1st the Slovene-language programme on ORF’s public frequency in the region, known as Radio Kärnten, will also change, The daily news perogramme from 6 to 7pm will come to an end.

Asturian Minister for Culture presents plans for autonomous television channel
The Minister for Culture of the Asturian autonomous government, Ana Rosa Migoya, has presented her policy priorities for the next four years, which include plans for a television channel for Asturias, despite opposition from the right-wing Partido Popular. However, she has stopped short of detailing the proposed linguistic make-up of the channel. Also among the minister’s priorities was the implementation of the plan for the normalisation of the Asturian language, which will permit the recognition and presence of the language at all levels of education and in the media.

Film on life of Galíndez to be released in Galician
A new film coproduced by Continental Produccións of A Coruña has been released with a Galician version, O misterio Galíndez, being distributed alongside the Spanish one, El misterio Galíndez. There will be three copies of the Galician version, to be shown in Vigo, Santiago and A Coruña. The film by Gerardo Herrera is based on the novel ‘Galíndez’ by Vázquez Montalbán. The film was shown for the first time at the Donosti Film Festival this October and tells the story of Jesús Galíndez, leader of the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party) who disappeared in New York in 1956, probably assassinated in the Dominican Republic with the involvement of the American secret services.

TV Breizh announces reduction in ‘regional’ programmes
On 8th September the private bilingual French and Breton telelvision channel, TV Breizh announced a reduction in its regional programming, signalling a move towards a more generalist schedule in an attempt to boost its viewing figures which remain unsatisfactory. At the same time, Rozenn Milin, who had been the channel’s director since its inception some 3 years ago, announced her resignation, although she remains involved with the channel in other capacities. TV Breizh is still only received by a small percentage of the Breton audience, a problem which it had hoped to resolve by obtaining local, terrestrial frequencies. The French broadcasting authority, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel has, however, not allocated any of these frequencies to the channel, a decision which has been the subject of political campaigning, see http://sauveztvbreizh.free.fr/.

Spanish magazine Cambio 16 launches Basque language version (source: Eurolang)
It is a fact that Basque journalist Gorka Landaburu likes challenges and impossible missions. That is why nobody was surprised that he founded and will direct a new weekly magazine in the Basque language called ‘Aldaketa Hamasei’. The magazine belongs to the Spanish media group Cambio 16 and, according to its new director, ‘will try to depoliticize the Basque language and open it to all ideologies’. The first issue appeared in all news kiosks across Euskal Herria yesterday.
‘Aldaketa Hamasei’, which is the Basque name for Cambio 16, is written only in Basque (Euskera), and up to 60 per cent of its content is exclusively produced for the Basque edition. The remaining 40 per cent are articles translated from the Spanish edition.
To achieve this goal, Landaburu has set up a permanent office in Donostia (San Sebastián) with 30 professionals, which will be aided in the near future by permanent stringers in all the Basque capitals, including Iruna (Pamplona) in Nafarroa and Baiona in Iparralde, the part of the Basque Country in the French state.
The project launch has cost two million euro and the editing company expects to earn 2.5 million euro in the first year.
Landaburu said that ‘our goal is to reach a section of the population, which is between 20 and 40 years old, that have mastered the Basque language but does not have a media product like ours’.
The director of Aldaketa Hamasei also said that politics will 'of course’ be covered by the weekly magazine, but made it clear that it will also pay more attention to social and cultural events. In his opinion, ‘the generation which we address is quite interested in politics, but not as much as some media seem to believe’.
Landaburu, who lost some fingers of his hand when ETA sent him a letter bomb, also made it clear that ‘our magazine is pluralistic, but we all agree to a profound condemnation of violence’.
Aldaketa Hamasei will print up to 15.000 issues per week until it reaches a stable number of readers. Besides the copies that may be sold in kiosks and libraries, a worldwide subscription campaign has been launched through the Euskal Etxeak or Basque houses that are located all around the world.
Most of them are in South America and Europe. The new magazine also will reach some kiosks in Madrid and Barcelona for the Basque residents living there.
The city of Donostia hosted the public launch of the magazine, and many politicians and celebrities attended it. Even though Landaburu did his best to assemble all political factions, the meeting was dominated by the presence of socialist militants and leaders.
Chief figures from the nationalist ruling party PNB also attended the meeting, while the Basque president himself, Juan José Ibarretxe, sent a note of support to Landaburu.
The mayor of Donostia, socialist Odón Elorza, said during the presentation that the new magazine ‘is an editorial challenge and a great opportunity’ to normalize the Basque language. Elorza, who also expressed his critical vision of the closure of the Basque newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria for its alleged links with ETA, asked the managers of Cambio 16 not to transform Aldaketa Hamasei into a ‘political weapon’.
Until now there has only been one Basque language weekly magazine, Argia, created in 1976. (EL)

New Gaelic Quarterly Launched
A new quarterly magazine in Scottish Gaelic, entitled Gath, was founded in August 2003. It is mainly concerned with informing readers about modern Scottish Gaelic literature, poetry, short stories and book reviews. The first two editions were privately funded and applications have been made to Bòrd na Gaidhlig (the public body charged with the development of the language) along with the Scottish Arts Council for future editions. It currently has a circulation of 200, but there are plans to increase this to 800. The magazine is 90 pages in length and contains photographs. Two editors work for the journal and UK subscribers can receive 4 issues for £14.

 Bulletin 55 - Mercator Legislation

• Official Languages Act 2003 (Ireland)
• Regional (Foral) Decree No. 29/2003, of February 10, on the use of the Basque language in the Public Administrations of Navarre (Navarre)
• Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Sweden (Sweden)
• Resolution on the Basque language in the Autonomous Community of Navarre (Navarre)

Given the significance of the year 2004 for the future of the European Union and, more specifically, the new linguistic policy deriving from the adoption of the new Constitutional Treaty, the II Mercator International Symposium will aim at a critical assessment of the role assigned to minority or regional languages within the new European order. The event will also focus on the way in which “respect for linguistic diversity” (Art. 3.3 and Art. 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights) will be reflected in the European Union’s new policies and actions.

The Symposium will also seek to focus on how the voice of minority language communities will be heard within the future European Union, as well as on the possible role of the Committee of the Regions, despite the fact that the draft text submitted by the European Convention 2004 has yet to define the role of the “regions”, particularly those which have their own language and their own legislative powers.

Another essential element to be taken into account when thinking about the future of these languages is the Council of Europe and its European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. There is a need to appraise the effect of this international instrument –the only binding and most explicit document concerning these languages– on Community policies dealing with non-official languages of the EU and with languages which are not explicitly recognised or do not receive adequate institutional support from the state.

Main thematic areas for papers:

1. European Constitution and linguistic diversity
   Language policies within the new Constitutional Treaty
   The recognition of non-official languages
   The effects on the new institutional structure (EU, CoE, OSCE)
   Language requirements for EU-accession. Why a double standard?
2. The role of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (the Charter)
   The Charter as a development of Art. 22 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and Art. 3.3 of the new Constitutional Treaty
   The Charter and EU programmes and actions
   EU language policy from the perspective of new member states
   Other alternatives beyond the Charter
3. Level of recognition and language vitality
   Case studies
   Monitoring and follow-up experiences regarding the implementation of legal measures
   

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• Minority governance in Europe / ed. By Kinga Gál. - Budapest : Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative; Flensburg : ECMI, 2002. - 378 p. - isbn 9639419400
• Linguistic diversity and new minorities in Europe : Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe = Diversité linguistique et nouvelles minorités en Europe / Ingrid Gogolin. - Strasbourg : Council of Europe, 2002. - 22 p.
• Education policy and minorities : Report of the Regional Conference Kyiv (Ukraine, 2-3 September 2002. - Strasbourg : Council of Europe, 2003. - 86 p.
• Education policy and minorities : Pilot project Ukraine : Final report. - Strasbourg : Council of Europe, 2002. - 126 p.
• Investigatin language attitudes : Social meanings of dialect, ethnicity and performance / by Peter Garrett, Nikolas Coupland and Angie Williams. - Cardiff : University of Wales Press, 2003. - 251 p. - 0708318037
• Rapportage jeugd 2002 / [ed. by] Elke Zeijl; [with contr. of] Marianne Baker ...[et al]. - Den haag : Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau, 2003. - 270 p. - isbn 9037701116
• Modern languages in Irish primary schools : An evaluation of the national pilot project / John Harris and Mary Conway. - Dublin : Institiúd Teangeolaíochta Éireann, 2002. - isbn 0946452180
• Context and culture in language teaching and learning / ed.by Michael Byram and Peter Grundy. - Clevedon [etc.] : Multilingual Matters, 2003. - 105 p. - isbn 1853596574
• Frysk talgebrûk yn familjeberjochten en adventinsjes 1932 - 2002 / Egbert de Vries. - Ljouwert : Berie foar it Frysk, 2003. - 47 p. + appendix.
• The organisation of innovation in language education / Frank Heyworth. - Strasbourg : Council of Europe Publishing; European Centre for Modern Languages, 2003. - 150 p. - isbn 9287151008