The answer: Inquisition in Basque Country

The National Geographic Magazine, Nov. 1995

The Basque Country or Euskal Herria (land of the basque language), as the three million Basques call their nation straddles the French-Spanish border along the western Pyrenees. Through the centuries, waves of Romans, Visigoths, Arabs, French and Spanish overran their country. But the Basques endured, often taking their traditions to the hills and forests for safekeeping.

The same Pyrenees that separate Spain from the rest of Europe united the Basques.

In 1980 the three Spanish provinces of Bizkaia, Araba and Gipuzkoa were officially joined as the Basque Autonomous Community.

But the Basque Country spills beyond the official borders. Basques call their nation Euskal Herria, or "land of the Basque language". And it is their ancient mother tongue that truly unites them. It was spoken here 5.000 years ago, before the Indo-Europeans arrived and spread out across the continent. And it is spoken today in cities and among the shepherds in the hills.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



El periodista Keith Johnson, del Wall Street Journal, responde a las protestas por su reportaje sobre el euskera

First of all, I wanted to thank you for taking the time and trouble to write. And forgive the mass nature of the reply, but the sheer volume of mail makes individual responses physically impossible. Second, for the many non-English speakers among you, I appreciate the effort made to write in English. While there were a variety of opinions regarding the article, a common complaint was that it denigrated Euskera. I think that some people have seen only local press summaries which, I feel, presented a distorted view of what I wrote, but even some readers who saw the original version took umbrage at certain aspects.

I wanted to stress that I never set out to denigrate Euskera, and regret any offense it may have caused to Basque speakers. As in any article, I tried to gather a variety of different voices and present their opinions, rather than my own.

Which brings me to two smaller points that many readers complained about. First, the headline, “Inquisition.” That is an unfortunate choice of words; but in U.S. newspapers, journalists don’t write their own headlines.

Secondly, many readers complained that the article somehow is related to an editorial agenda of News Corp., and drew a link with one member of the News Corp. board, Jose Maria Aznar. I just wanted to stress that whatever errors there are in the article are mine; there is never any interference from above at any time, and certainly not when the editorial independence of the newspaper has been the key concern during the whole takeover process.

Best regards Keith Johnson