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Teresa Toda, profile of a journalist [05/01/2008]

TERESA TODA, profile of a journalist

Teresa Toda (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1950) is a journalist and tireless campaigner in support of freedom of expression. She was born in Brazil into the family of a diplomat of the Francoist regime and lived in North and South America as well as in the United Kingdom until she embarked on her journalism studies. Owing to her anti-Francoist and leftwing stance, she was expelled from university and completed her studies a few years later.

While the dictator Franco was in power, from the 1970s onwards Teresa Toda combined her passion for journalism with her struggle in favour of the downtrodden. After working in different media and trade unions in Madrid and Barcelona, she began to work for the newspaper EGIN as its Madrid correspondent in 1984. She remained in the Spanish capital until 1990.

She experienced the assassination of the member of the Spanish Parliament and journalist Josu Muguruza at first hand, and then came to the Basque Country. This is how she remembered the event a few years later: I was having dinner with members of HB [political party of the Basque nationalist left]. Josu Muguruza was a friend and colleague of mine. It was very hard. The situation in Madrid was not at all easy and in 1990 EGIN proposed that I should come here. I spent a year in Bizkaia and then came to Gipuzkoa. Here I was Deputy Editor as well as Chief Editor of the world and economy sections.

Teresa Toda came to the Basque Country, took on most of the responsibilities of the newspaper EGIN and learnt Basque. I took leave of absence in 1998 to work for the magazine of the trade union LAB. I continued to contribute to EGIN and my plan was to return within a couple of years. But at that very moment the newspaper was closed down. It was a terrible day. I wept the whole night. I saw my future cut off. All of a sudden you end up without a job and you see all your colleagues in the same situation. And then of course it had tremendous political relevance. In the end they went as far as closing down EGIN. And how were we supposed to react? In my view we reacted appropriately. That very day Euskadi Información was published and then came "Gara".

If there had been any doubts that political considerations outweighed legal ones in the closing down of EGIN (the taking of provisional measures against it would have sufficed, but closing it down completely meant that the punitive measures were permanent), the then Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, soon dispelled any of the doubts when he said: Did anyone think we wouldn't dare?.

The closing down of the newspaper EGIN (and the radio station bearing the same name) were followed by that of the magazine Ardi Beltza and four years later by that of the Basque-language daily Euskaldunon Egunkaria. Over these years the case has been gradually expanding; Teresa Toda and other people in positions of responsibility at EGIN were granted conditional liberty (which entailed having to report to court regularly, and not be permitted to cross the borders of the Spanish State), but they continued with initiatives in support of freedom of expression by setting up the newspaper GARA and participating in the Basque PEN centre and other organisations and forums.

The trial in the 18/98 case that included the newspaper EGIN brought further punishment: every day for sixteen months the defendants had to be present during the trial at the Spanish National Criminal Court in Madrid, 500 km from home, which interfered totally with their everyday lives. In a trial full of irregularities Teresa Toda, Jabier Salutregi (EGIN's Editor-in-Chief) and a further eleven of the newspaper's staff were sentenced to prison terms in excess of ten years. In Teresa's case, as already stated, for engaging in journalism. As in the case of many other journalists, the judge turned the interview that Teresa and Jabier had conducted with ETA leaders into collaboration with terrorism.

The Basque-language newspaper "Berria" reported what happened during the trial: They [Teresa and Jabier] gave details of the main events on which the charges are based: they had not held a meeting with the ETA leadership, but had conducted a newspaper interview; so that interview had nothing whatsoever to do with the appointment with one of them as Chief Editor, and the other as Deputy Editor; (&) Salutregi could not have been in direct contact with the ETA leadership through the modem of his computer, because, among other things, they didn't have a modem.

A sign of the judge's attitude is illustrated by the fact that she forbade Teresa to speak when Teresa tried to explain why she would not be responding to the Prosecutor:

Toda.- The reason I do not wish to answer is that our rights have been denied&.
Senior Judge.- It is of no interest&
T.- But I think it is.
P.- No, it isn't.
T.- With all due respect, I think it is.
P.- I decide what is of interest and what is not.
T.- But I am demanding my right to defence.
P.- You can say whatever you like in your defence, but I'm not interested in why you are not responding to the charges.
T.- I would like to explain, because I feel it is necessary...
P.- No, it isn't
T.- &because we are claiming the right to freedom of expression, and we are being denied it. .

Upon saying that she unzipped her sweater and showed the panel of judges the white T-shirt she was wearing bearing the slogan, Egin, adierazpen askatasuna (Egin, freedom of expression).

Teresa Toda is a member of the Basque PEN's board. She is a first-class journalist and for the last 35 years has been a staunch activist in support of freedom of expression. Sending Teresa Toda down for ten years is not only immoral and totally unjust, it is a deep insult to the Basque PEN and to all of us who believe in freedom of expression. For all these reasons we demand unconditional freedom for Teresa and for all those convicted in the EGIN case.

Euskal PEN - Basque PEN