Aegin

Egin ('Do' in Basque) was a Basque newspaper of general information, with a left-wing and abertzale ideological line, and of a bilingual as it included articles written in Basque and Spanish. It was published in Hernani by Orain S.A. —a company that also ran the Egin Irratia radio station— and distributed mainly in the Basque Country, Navarra and the French Basque Country.

For years various political parties accused him of being at the service of the terrorist organization ETA and he was economically marginalized by official institutions. According to some historians, the newspaper was controlled by Herri Batasuna, who expelled journalists related to Euskadiko Ezkerra from the newsroom during the Transition.

It was closed in 1998 by order of Judge Baltasar Garzón. However, in 2009 the courts ruled that their activity was lawful, contrary to the previous resolution; but, due to the time elapsed, it was not possible to reopen either the newspaper or the radio. The medium that would occupy the spectrum of Egin was the daily Gara.

History

Egin published its first issue on September 29, 1977. According to one of its founders, José Luis Elkoro, «ten people got together to put 100,000 pesetas each one: there was a car salesman, a butcher, a churrero...»; In addition to the founders, there were 24,000 account participants, "who contributed their grain of sand, large or small." On its first cover, it expressed its gratitude: "To all of you who have waited for this newspaper. To the group of founders who risked first. To the twenty-odd thousand account-participants, without demanding in return. To all those who think of this newspaper as an instrument to build a Euskal Herria -made up of seven provinces- that opens paths for a new society...».

The alleged link between Egin, ETA and the Abertzale left led several public institutions, at the time of the pacts between parties to isolate the Abertzale left, to economically marginalize Egin and refusing to include institutional advertising in the newspaper, unlike what they did with other media. According to Elkoro, Egin went through very difficult times: "From then on we were always asking for it", and according to him, "they stopped paying Social Security, only the company contribution, not the labor one" and "we didn't stop paying because we didn't want to, but because we couldn't, but we always had the intention of doing so".

Editorial line

The last editorial line of Egin expressed a strong rejection of police violence, torture of detainees or state terrorism, while expressing solidarity with those accused of kale borroka or belonging to ETA.

Apart from the ideological affinity of much of its content with the Abertzale left, Egin used to be the first news outlet to receive ETA communiqués. During Pepe Rei's time as editor-in-chief, his team investigated certain cases of political, economic and police corruption ─such as the "GAL case", which came to light after investigations by journalist Pedro J. Ramírez for Diario 16─, as well as the activity of certain extreme right-wing groups.

Egin was also one of the promoters, in his culture pages, of the so-called Basque Radical Rock (RRV) in the 1980s.

The judicial closing process

The Spanish police investigated for years the relations between Egin and ETA, including the origin of advertisements published in Egin that were supposedly used to send greetings and messages to accused prisoners or convicted of terrorism. According to investigations by the Civil Guard, Egin carried out "ideological dissemination" work, and internal communication of its militants. In a report by this body, it was even considered that ETA could have chosen in 1992 to a new director and assistant director of Egin. However, when being summoned to trial as an expert, an agent author of the report acknowledged that he could not affirm it.

In 1994 the Ertzaintza (Basque regional police) searched the headquarters of Egin. That same year, coincidences were found between the investigation files of Pepe Rei's team and the information on targets seized from ETA. In August, Pepe Rei was arrested by order of Judge Carlos Bueren, but he was acquitted in 1997.

In the early morning of July 15, 1998, Judge Baltasar Garzón ordered the precautionary closure of the newspaper and the radio station, as well as the arrest of various officials of Orain S.A., whom he accused of joining an armed gang. All the detainees were held incommunicado under anti-terrorism legislation. In his instruction, the judge considered that the company was subject to ETA.

Reactions to the closure of Egin

On the day of the closure of Egin, the then president of the Spanish government José María Aznar was on an official visit to Turkey and, when a journalist asked him about what had happened at a press conference, he replied: «Did you think we were not going to dare?». What was criticized by the judiciary for its lack of respect for the separation of powers.

In February 1999, Judge Garzón extended the closure for another six months and, after this new period, in August 1999, authorized the reopening of the closed newspaper and radio station, considering it "practically disappeared". » the activity of ETA. But on October 18, the receiver confirmed that the publishing group of Egin was financially unviable and could not meet its debts. At the time of the closure decreed by Garzón, Egin sold 52,311 copies a day, according to OJD, had 210 workers and had a headquarters in Hernani and offices in Vitoria, Pamplona and Bilbao.

The closure of Egin provoked various protests, especially among the nationalist left, such as the platform Hitz egin ('Speaks'), title to turn from a song by the Basque rock group Negu Gorriak. The morning after the newspaper closed, the newspaper Euskadi Información went on sale, replacing it, which went out of print at the time Gara began its journey.

Judicial rulings

After more than a year, after the investigation of the case had finished, the National Court lowered the accusation to the crime of collaboration with an armed gang, which made the closure unjustified. By then, Orain S.A. had already entered bankruptcy, and the market niche of Egin had been covered by the new daily Gara, so neither the daily Egin nor did his radio start up again.

Pepe Rei continued his work at the magazine Ardi Beltza, but he was arrested again in 1999 and 2001, and the magazine was closed by court order.

Finally, on May 22, 2009, the Supreme Court annulled “the pronouncement regarding the declaration of illegality of their activities and dissolution of the entities Orain SA, Ardatza SA, Hernani Inprimategia, Publicidad Lema 2000, Erigane SL, MC Uralde SL, Untzorri Bidaiak Ganeko, Grupo Ugao SL (Cuba) and Gadusmar SL, as well as the confiscation and liquidation of their assets.”

The former director of Egin, Xabier Salutregi, was sentenced to twelve years in prison for joining a terrorist organization as a leader; the deputy director, Teresa Toda, was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Documentary Collection

In December 2017, the National Court agreed that its documentary collection would be taken over by the Basque Government in order to prevent further deterioration of the journalistic material and the photographic archive that were still in its old facility on the Eziago de Hernani, since the judicial administrator designated for his custody was not exercising that function and the building was in a dilapidated state.