| Haider
wants less Slovenian TV
Austria’s national TV station ORF should reconsider the broadcasting
of the programme ‘Servus-Srecno-Ciao’ says Jörg Haider,
head of the Austrian province Carinthia. ‘Servus-Srecno-Ciao’
was introduced four years ago and is broadcast daily for three hours.
The reports are in German but interviews remain in their original language.
According to Haider the TV programme distorts competition because it shows
cross-border reports on social and cultural life in the neighbouring areas
of Slovenia and Friuli. Showing images of their landscapes neglects Carinthia
as a tourist destination and discriminates against its economy, argues
Haider. Haider also criticises the fact that the programme is not included
in the ethnic group programming, which is supposed to be in one language
only. According to Janko Kulmesch, executive director of the Council of
the Carinthian Slovenes Haider’s remarks are “just about removing
any remnants of the Slovenian language from ORF”. From Eurolang,
5 July
Online status petition for minority languages
exceeds 25,000 signatures
Eurominority reports that its online petition seeking official status
for minority languages in France has so far obtained over 25,000 signatures.
Following the Spanish government’s proposal for translation of the
draft Constitution into Catalan, Galician, and Basque and to allow EU
officials to be addressed in these languages, the petition calls on the
French government to make the same demand for Basque and Catalan, as well
as for other regional languages of France: Breton, Letzebürgesch,
Corsican, and Occitan. The petition is at http://petitions.eurominority.org/petitions/langues-officielles.asp
From Eurolang, 23 June
First newspaper for the Serb minority in Macedonia
The first issue of the magazine Pogled (meaning ‘Vision’)
was published in Skopje in May. This is the first Serbian language newspaper
published in Macedonia since it gained its independence in 1991. The magazine
deals with the everyday life of Macedonians, with the main focus on Macedonian’s
Serbian minority, around 36,000 people. It is planned that the magazine’s
online version (www.pogled.com.mk) will be translated into English in
the near future. From Eurominority.org, 7 June
Application for EU funding for a weekly Sami
newspaper in Sweden withdrawn
Another initiative for a Swedish Sami newspaper was abandoned in June.
Miljömagasinet, a green newspaper, withdrew its application for EU
funding for a weekly Sami newspaper after the Cultural Committee of Sweden’s
Sametinget refused to grant 120,000 SEK to the initiative. The newspaper
needs 1.7 million SEK to get started and EU funding could provide it.
However, the application for EU funding had to be withdrawn because the
Cultural Committee’s refusal for co-financing means that the project
lacks the necessary national funding. Now Gustaf Jillger, project leader
who previously worked as the editor of Samefolket, is appealing directly
to Sametinget’s leadership for funding.
Miljömagasinet has complained about the Cultural Committee’s
decision to the County Court because in their view the decision is against
Sametinget’s media and language programmes. The problem is a lack
of money, says Per-Gustav Labba, the spokesperson for the Cultural Committee.
“We have a media political plan but not the money to carry it out”.
According to Krister Vallsten form Miljömagasinet there is a great
need for a Sami newspaper because it would help develop the Sami society,
particularly with regard to questions of democracy and language. Sámi
Radio, 26&28 May; 8 June
Radio station owner is arrested after broadcasting
in Macedonian.
On Friday, 4 June 2004, police entered the premises of the private radio
station Makedonikos Ichos (Macedonian Sound) in Naoussa, ceased the transmitting
and arrested the owner, Aris Vottaris. The official explanation was that
this radio station has no licence for local or regional transmission.
Vottaris was released after few hours, but there were charges pressed
against him because of illegal transmission and lack of documents. However
as there are many other radio stations operating in the prefectures of
Imathia and Pella (N.Greece) under the same conditions, it has been suspected
that the arrest is because Vottaris, a (Slav) Macedonian, has been transmitting
traditional songs and dances in the Macedonian language on air.
Slovenia protests against ending of 'Radio Trieste'
on medium wave
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia has protested against the
announced discontinuing of Slovene-language Radio Trieste on medium wave.
The Ministry said it expects the relevant Italian authorities to influence
the state-run RTV RAI to revoke the plans. The Radio Trieste A program
on medium wave covers the entire region populated by the Slovene minority
in Italy and a large part of Slovenia. The Slovene-language programme
is very important for Slovenian speakers in Italy and is protected by
the Law on the Protection of the Slovene Minority in the Furlanija-Julijska
Krajina.
Merely broadcasting the programme on VHF would not enable it to cover
the entire region populated by the Slovene minority. The discontinuation
of the programme on medium wave is also against international legal documents
on the protection of ethnic minorities. From SAFAX-Ljubljana, 25 May 2004
Plans for a new Sami newspaper in Sweden
SameÄtnam, an organisation promoting Sami culture and handicrafts,
is looking for funding to start a new Sami newspaper in Sweden. The newspaper
would compete with SameÄtnam’s own newspaper Samefolket (www.samefolket.se)
which it co-owns with Svenska Samernas Riksförbund (The National
Union of the Swedish Sami People). Samefolket publishes primarily in Swedish
but also includes articles in Sami languages. From Sámi Radio,
6 May;
Background info: www.samenland.nl/lapland/lap_sami_si.html
New Breton online dictionary launched
A new Breton online dictionary has been launched by the non-profit organisation
Preder in cooperation with the news agency Agence Bretagne Press. The
bilingual, partly trilingual, dictionary provides translations of general
terms in Breton, French and English. It also includes modern, technical
and business terms. The dictionary is based on a number of previous Preder
publications of specialised Breton dictionaries written by linguists such
as Guy Etienne and Yann Baol an Noalleg, and more general dictionaries
will be integrated into the existing one. The aim is to allow people free
access to a modern Breton dictionary and to provide a workspace for a
network of linguists to work together, for example, on the creation of
neologisms. The dictionary is online at www.preder.net/klask.php From
Eurolang, 28 April
Hungarian language TV channels in Romania and
Hungary set to collaborate
Duna Television, a Hungarian television channel, and Transylvanian Hungarian
Television (THT), a commercial TV station being established in Rumania,
have plans to collaborate in order to offer more better quality programming
for the Hungarian speakers in Rumania. Rumania has more than 1.5 million
Hungarian speakers, but the Romanian public TV only broadcasts a few hours
daily in Hungarian. Commercial stations have even less programming in
Hungarian.
Duna TV is a public channel based in Budapest, broadcasting mainly for
Hungarian speakers living outside Hungary. The THT is a television channel
being set up by Janovits Jeno Foundation, an NGO, which will receive financing
from the Hungarian state. From Eurolang, 18 April
Frisian movement demands the use of ‘the
right accents’ on Frisian internet addresses
Following the news that German letters such as ö and ü will
be accepted on German internet addresses, Fryske Beweging, the Council
of the Frisian Movement, has asked the Dutch Foundation for the Registration
of Internet Domains (SIDN) to allow the use of Frisian accents (â,
ê, ô, û and ú) on internet and e-mail addresses
as soon as possible. Because of technical, operational and legal complications
SIDN has, until now, prohibited the use of symbols other than plain letters
and numbers for internet domains with the extension .nl.
“It is unacceptable that we are forced to spell our Frisian names
wrongly”, spokesperson Reitze Jonkman says. SIDN has appointed a
committee to study the possible consequences of the introduction of special
signs in internationalised domain names. It is also in close contact with
organisations in other countries and various international committees.
“It was a mistake to allow the usage of the Umlaut in internet
addresses”, special advisor Piet Beertema of SIDN comments. “We
now have an internationally standardized alphabet of 24 letters …
if we allow all signs from all European languages we will end up with
a most complicated alphabet with well over 80 letters.” “It
will certainly complicate the exchange of e-mail and internet addresses.”
Jonkman however argues that “technical impediments should never
hinder a correct and free use of a minority language.” From Eurolang,
30 March
Sami news archive to be digitalised and put
online
The Sami News Archive in Vilhelmina, Sweden, will be made more accessible
through digitalisation which will allow the archive to be used via internet.
The archive holds around 70,000 articles about the Sami, originating mainly
from daily papers, but also from weekly and monthly newspapers. Started
in 1966, the archive is a unique collection about everything that has
been said about the Sami in Swedish newspapers. Until now it has been
difficult to access as it has only been available for viewing in Vilhelmina.
The plan is to set up two data terminals in Vilhelmina and Umeå
to allow visitors to read articles. But the archive will also be available
on the internet for searching and ordering copies of articles online.
In the long run Peter Sköld from the Centrum för Samisk Forskning
(Centre for Sami research), who is responsible for the digitalisation
of the material, hopes that the articles can be read online. At the moment
this is not possible due to copyright laws. From Sámi Radio, 25
March
Friulian film critically acclaimed
A Friulian thriller film, “Custodes bestiae”, directed by
Lorenzo Bianchini, created critical acclaim this Spring. The main character
is a journalist who investigates the mysterious disappearance of a medieval
history student in Friuli. As in his previous films, the dialogue in Custodes
Bestiae is both in Friulian and Italian. As in real life, the actors switch
from one language to the other according to the situation or the person
they are talking to. The result is a provoking approach to linguistic
identity, but also a film that attracts an audience of different ages.
Bianchini gained recognition a couple of years ago when his horror film
“Lidris cuadrade di tre” (Square root of three) won the biannual
Friulian Film Festival. Despite being produced on a tight budget, the film
became a success. It has been screened around the region, and on university
courses. From Eurolang, 25 March
Unspent EU money means that www.same.net remains
online at least until end of September
The virtual meeting and information point for Sami people, www.same.net
remains online at least until the end of September thanks to EU funding
that was not all spent within the project period. Therefore the project
has been extended until the end of September by Samernas Utbildningscentrum
(The Sami Education Centre), an educational centre designed for the educational
needs of the Sami peoples. It has budgeted to run SameNet until the end
of the year, but higher subscription fees are required. In 2003 Sami organisations
contributed 200,000 Swedish crowns in subscriptions. From Sámi
Radio, 24 March
The first Sami journalist prize awarded
The first Sami journalist prize was awarded to freelance journalist Eilif
Aslaksen and Thor Thrane, a reporter of the Norwegian Sámi Radio.
The two journalists are sharing the prize, which is worth 30,000 SEK.
The award has been established by Samiska Journalistförbundet (the
Sami Journalist Association) and Sami media in Sápmi (Samiland).
It was presented at the annual meeting of the Journalistförbundet
in Heatta. From Sámi Radio, 23 March
Andorra debuted in Catalan at this year’s
Eurovision Song Contest in Turkey
Andorra’s debut in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest was sung in
Catalan by Marta Roure. It was the first time that Catalan, Andorra’s
only official language, had been used in the contest. Marta Roure was
selected to represent Andorra by TV viewers and a jury in a ‘Fame
Academy’ style programme, co-organised by Andorran TV and the Catalan
broadcaster TV3. Roure’s song, Jugarem a estimar-nos (Let’s
play to love each other) was composed by Jofre Bardagí, son of
Josep Maria Bardagí, a well-known musician in Catalonia and Andorra.
From Eurolang, 18 March
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