[brlug-general] the short answer.

[Fernando Vilas]

On Saturday 22 September 2007 09:32:34 Chopin Cusachs wrote:
> At 04:30 PM 9/21/07, Will Hill  wrote:
> >It's what the user thinks is spam that matters, not you or me.  A spam
> > filter that the user can not override is not a spam filter, it's a
> > censor.
>
> Seems there are concerns in this area all around
> the world.  I received this today.  It's not the
> first from the sender, from Sueca, who objects to
> the regional government imposing Spanish
> instead of Valenciano (which is mutually
> intelligible with Catalan) in his area.  I quote only the
> first two paragraphs.  TV3 is from Barcelona,
> uses Catalan.  In Valencia, paella is as sacred
> as jambalaya in ours, which may be a descendant of it.
>

[snip article in catalan]

For those on the list who don't understand Catalan, I found an automatic 
translator into Spanish, and I'm posting my translation of that into English 
below.

**************
Youths From Sueca Defend TV3 in a challenge from Channel  9

Good morning, y'all already know that this past Sunday, the latest attempt 
against freedom of expression of thought was committed against our people.  
This is the film of the facts.

This past Sunday, Sept 16, 2007, there was a celebration for the presentation 
of prizes from the 47th International Competition of Valencian Cooking in 
Sueca.  Coinciding with the live feed from Channel 9, three youths from this 
area, Miquel Blasco, Mireia Castelló, and Jordi Manyes showed their 
disapproval of the attempt of the Valencian government to censor the 
broadcasts of TV3 to the Valencian country, exhibiting small posters 
scribbled with an ink pen just behind the presenter, where it could be seen.  
The posters read "I know TV3" and "We love TV3".  Here, y'all can see the 
video of what happened, streaming from Channel 9.
***********

And some background on why this is important.  When Franco came to power at 
the end of the Spanish Civil War, he mandated that Spanish be the only 
language spoken in Spain, where many regions had their own unique languages.  
When he died, and Spain became a constitutional monarchy, their constitution 
says that Spanish as well as regional languages like Catalan, Gallego, Basque 
(Euskera), etc. are official languages and acceptable for business.  The 
people in these regions are proud of their local languages and see attempts 
to prohibit their use as racist and they stir up bad memories for those that 
lived under Franco's rule.

I would count what the author, Sueca, is describing as at least as important 
in terms of censorship as Yahoo et. al. censoring the TruthNow emails for 
political reasons.

I'll stop now, b/c anything else I have to say on this topic would get me 
banished to the -politics list, which is where it rightly belongs.

-- 
Thanks,
Fernando Vilas
fvilas at iname.com
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