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Basque
language daily launches supplement
The Basque language daily newspaper Berria, which was recetly established
in order to fill the gap left when the Spanish judiciary closed Egunkaria,
has recently launched a new supplement called Tartea. This has 12 pages,
carrying feature articles, reports, interviews and thematic sections such
as health, fashion, decorating, leisure, food etc. It includes colour
on the first, last and middle pages.
Association of periodical publications
in Catalan celebrates its 20th anniversary
The Association of Periodical Publications in Catalan (Associació
de Publicacions Periòdiques en Català – APPEC), which
represents Catalan-language publications with a cover price celebrated
its twentieth year of existence at the beginning of this month. A number
of events were held at the end of November and the beginning of December,
during a ‘week of communication’ (setmana de la comunicació),
including the presentation of APPEC’s Yearbook of Communication
(Anuari de la Comunicació) and an academic event at the Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona, with a paper given by Prof. María
Corominas on the Catalan communicative space. Earlier this year, at the
end of October, APPEC published a Guidebook of Media in Catalan (Guia
de mitjans de comunicació en català). This guide, the first
of its kind, contains 200 pages and presents data on some 1000 media institutions
from the Catalan language area, including internet, radio, printed press
and television.
Catalan children’s magazine
launches website
The Catalan children’s magazine Mil Dimonis, published by the Associació
per l’Ensenyament del Català (Association for the Teaching
of Catalan) in Perpinyà (Perpignan), has launched a web page Mil-dimonis.com,
on which can be found games, news, features and subscription details.
Mil Dimonis is a recently established magazine and part of a cooperative
network of children’s publications in the minority langauges of
the French state, including Plumalhon in Occitan, Louarnig in Breton and
Pika in Basque.
Workers at Catalan radio station
protest against its closure
Som Ràdio, a Catalan radio station broadcasting in the Balearic
Islands, is to cease broadcasting on the 31st December 2003, the autonomous
government of the Balearics not having allocated any funding for the station
in 2004. The station was established in 2000 by the culture ministry of
the previous autonomous government and has the aim of promoting the Catalan
language. The closure of the station has been criticised by groups concerned
with the defence of the language and the station’s workers have
complained about the fact that they have received no explanation for this
decision. So far, they say that all they know is what the minister for
culture stated to parliament, namely that Som Ràdio is an illegal
and ‘illegalisable’ radio station. The staff of the radio
have also announced their intention to launch a campaign around the issue.
Until the end of the year the station can be heard on the internet at
www.somradio.com.
Breton language DVD for children
published
The Breton children’s cartoon Pablo al louarnig ruz (Pablo
the little red fox), which is broadcast on TV Breizh (http://www.tv-breizh.com/),
appears on DVD this month. Subtitles are available in either Breton or
French. The DVD was produced and the dubbing of the cartoon carried out
by Dizale. It is being distributed and sold by Keit Vimp Bev, keit-vimp-bev@wanadoo.fr.
Three hundred copies have been made and they are priced at 30 euros each.
Conference on the future of local
media in the Basque Country
On the 28th and 29th of November in Zamudio, near Bilbo (Bilbao) in the
Basque Country, a two day conference was held on the future of local media
by the organisation Topagunea, a federation of associations concerned
with the promotion of the Basque language. As the organisers point out,
it is fifteen years since the local Basque press first appeared, carrying
the information closest to the citizen. The year 1988 was a historical
milestone, bringing as it did the founding of the pioneering Arrasate
Press. Following this model, other similar magazines were set up throughout
the Basque Country with the aim of promoting knowledge and use of the
language. Fifteen years on, it was felt that it was time to take stock
of what has happened to date but also to consider what the future might
hold. Among the contributions at the conference were presentations by
Mercator Media on the position of local minority language media in Europe
as a whole and the local press in the Welsh language in particular.
New Breton publisher established
A new publisher of Breton language books has been established in An Oriant
(Lorient). Éditions Oranges Nouvelles was set up by authors of
short stories and is to specialise in the publication of this genre. The
books published are pocket-sized, orange in colour and generally cost
2 or 3 euros. Three stories were published in September this year (400
copies of each), two of which were in French with the other being bilingual.
Another four books are planned for December, one of which is to be in
Breton.
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