Media subsidies in Basque at a minimum

2017/02/02 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Elhuyarren berriak

Elhuyar has been publishing the magazine Elhuyar Zientzia eta Teknologia in Basque for thirty years. It is one of the few journals in Basque dedicated to scientific dissemination in the Basque Country and has reached to date thanks to the support shown by thousands of subscribers. Its objective is to disseminate scientific culture in Basque, in order to promote a society with criteria, criticism and participation. In addition to the paper edition, it has a digital version on the internet with more content.

In 2001 we created the website zientzia.eus, a specialized website that offers scientific and technological contents in Basque and in multimedia format. Publish articles, videos, audios, blogs, agenda, etc., with more than 18,000 scientific contents in Basque.

Elhuyar's contribution to Basque society is therefore clear: for the Basques to know science, he offers us a rigorous, legible, critical and cutting-edge offer in Basque.

All this work, however, has not been reflected in the subsidies of recent years. In the Hedabideak call of the Basque Government for the consolidation, efficiency, development and normalization of the media in Basque, we have gone from receiving 94,884 euros in 2011 to 25,000 euros. 73% less. This has had terrible consequences and in 2015 we had to go from a month to a quarter. In addition, the digital edition has not received aid, which has meant a loss of 15.057 euros compared to 2012. The zientzia.eus website has also lost 62% of its support compared to 2012.

All this in the name of the scope, since the subsidies that correspond to the media in Basque are now calculated according to the number of readers, without taking into account that the specialized media cannot expect them to be of interest to all Basque readers.

In short, is it not necessary to strengthen, influence, develop and normalize the scientific and technological media in Basque? How are they consolidated each year with or without minor subsidies? The measures taken in the name of the scope will lead Basque society to consume scientific and technological news in Spanish or English. We cannot forget that science and technology are partly the driving force of society.

However, Elhuyar aims to continue to make science and technology known to Basque society and has started 2017 with the hope that new criteria and grants will be created to ensure the dissemination of science and technology in Basque.