The Spanish Media - It Didn't Happen In Malaga!
by Marcus Lawtey
It's a beautiful Sunday morning here in Malaga, Spain. The rains - which incidentally produced about ten times the normal rainfall, although they wheeled out some old bloke from the Met Office who claimed it was all 'quite normal' - have finally cleared, leaving a vibrant freshness: birds, plants and insects, all screaming with an unrepentant life force. Flowers, wild flowers, growing wherever the seeds have been scattered, refusing to comply with our arrogant view of where flowers should grow.
I switched on the computer and saw that I had a Media Lens update about the gross distortions on reporting the ongoing terror in Palestine and Israel. I saw the title ('Ignorance is Strength - The Mainstream Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict') and decided that I would write about the experience that my wife Maca and I had on Friday night, just to see how the experiences compared.
It started with a phone call last Thursday night from a friend very involved in the socialist party. There is still a pretty firm belief in parties at the grassroots level. The cynicism tends to be at a higher level, where the lust for power has poisoned their minds. Paco, the friend calling me, said that there would be a march for peace the following night organised by all the 'left parties'. He was a bit worried about the refusal of the local media to even mention the march, but hopefully word of mouth would be sufficient.
I informed Paco that Maca and I would do everything we could to be there. It had reached the point where I was tired of talking about how bad the situation was. I wanted to get out there and join others to let the Spanish government and, incidentally, the current holders of the revolting European presidency, know how we felt whilst they looked on as the systematic slaughter in Palestine takes place.
I finished classes at seven and made my way to O'Neal's for a pint whilst I waited for Maca to finish a course that she was doing. I was comfortable, tired and somehow reassured putting the world to rights with my notebook and pen. Did we really want to go on this march? Wouldn't another pint actually do more for peace in the long term? Thankfully these feelings did not last too long.
We made our way to the square wondering whether the protestors would be mainly of Arabic descent, (remember Malaga has a substantial North African population), or anarchists, or perhaps techno hippies. Would there be trouble? When we arrived at the square, there in front of us was simply a very large mixture of concerned people - a complete cross section of ages, races and philosophies.
I saw one very well-dressed couple in their seventies, though I suppose the majority were middle-aged, both Spanish and North African. Although the sentiment was obviously a serious one, the atmosphere was incredibly positive; everyone sang or chanted, waving various banners, as about two thousand of us marched through the ancient streets of Malaga, which by the way have fantastic acoustics for chanting.
The march was authorised, so we were even allowed by the police to block traffic and bring a peaceful kind of mayhem to the Friday night rush-hour traffic. Never in my life have I been able to stop cars. It was quite an exhilarating feeling; we should all do it more often. Many drivers sounded their horns, although we weren't too sure whether it was in solidarity or frustration!
The march finally came to an end two hours later in another square, various Arab and Spanish writers spoke. The words were not so important. The key thing had been that two thousand people had got together with a minimum of publicity to show their outrage at the apathy of the western world.
Of course Maca and I had no regrets and looked forward to reading the local press and seeing the bulletins the next day. Even if they had been negative it wouldn't have mattered. At least some kind of debate about the situation would be taking place.
Yesterday (Saturday) I was with a student who had just bought the main local paper. Front page? Nothing. Inside? Nothing either. To make absolutely sure we went through the whole paper looking for even the smallest article that mentioned the traffic mayhem. Still nothing. Needless to say, the TV had not covered it either.
I hate to use a footballing expression, but we were gutted. Two thousand people may not be a huge number, but that flood of impassioned humanity marching through the streets did have an impact, and a meaning - both were completely ignored.
We all know the theory: the media cannot criticise such an event so instead they ignore it. For once, to be a victim of the reality behind the theory is an enlightening (yes, Herman and Chomsky are right) and disappointing experience. How many other demonstrations and marches are taking place and being ignored all over the world?
The whole of Italy went on strike last week against the rapacious roll back policies of Berlusconi. Ninety percent of the population agreed on something and the media barely went into it. Well, even some of the Spanish media is controlled by Silvio...
April 21, 2002
-medialens-