The Basque regional Parliament met last week and discussed the Spanish government’s crackdown on Egunkaria, the Basque language daily newspaper closed on suspicion of ties to ETA. Basque president Juan Jose Ibarretxe was quoted by Egunkaria, which is still running and pushing to increase its subscriptions, as saying “I am not a part of a democracy that wants to bring Martin Ugalde to jail.” Ugalde is one of the founders of the paper. Several staff members and executives were held in detention for days and in some cases weeks by Spanish police. Egunkaria’s editor says he was tortured repeatedly by Spanish security officers.
