Appeal to help pay penalties against Acció Cultural

Una multa contra tots: en solidaritat amb Acció Cultural

Last February the 17th, Acció Cultural del País Valencià (ACPV) was forced to stop TV3 transmissions to the Valencian land, after 26 years. TV3 had become during this period, a normalised TV offer in the Valencian land, where it was appreciated for its quality and for being one of a few audiovisual offers in Catalan.

In spite of this, President Francisco Camps decided four years ago to open several administrative cases against ACPV as the subject of these emissions, therefore starting a long political and economical harassment process. Last October this association was forced to pay 126.943,90 euros for the first penalty, and now it faces two more penalties amounting to almost 800.000 euros (of which it has already paid 130.000), an absolutely excessive quantity for a non-profit cultural association, whose existence it is jeopardizing.

Please help us.

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El passat 17 de febrer, Acció Cultural del País Valencià (ACPV) es va veure obligada a cessar les emissions de TV3 al País Valencià, després de 26 anys. Durant aquest temps, TV3 havia esdevingut una oferta televisiva normalitzada al País Valencià, on s’ha distingit per la seua qualitat i pel fet de ser una de les poques ofertes audiovisuals en català.

Malgrat això, el president Francisco Camps va decidir, ara fa quatre anys, obrir una sèrie d’expedients administratius contra l’entitat responsable d’aquestes emissions, Acció Cultural, cosa que s’ha traduït en una llarga persecució política i econòmica. El passat mes d’octubre, l’entitat ja va haver de pagar 126.943,90 euros per satisfer una primera multa, i ara s’enfronta a dues multes més que sumen vora 800.000 euros (dels quals ja n’ha pagat 130.000), una quantitat absolutament desproporcionada per a una associació cultural sense ànim de lucre la continuïtat de la qual pot posar en perill.

Durant aquests quatre anys, Acció Cultural ha fet patent l’amplíssim suport a TV3 al País Valencià, fins a arribar a l’èxit de la manifestació del passat 16 d’abril a València. En aquest sentit, cal també recordar les 651.650 signatures recollides perla IniciativaLegislativaPopular (ILP) “Televisió sense Fronteres” per legalitzar la recepció de totes les televisions en català en el conjunt del domini lingüístic, i que ara podria entrar a tràmit parlamentari al Congrés espanyol.

Tant el projecte de llei impulsat per la ILPcom el recurs que Acció Cultural ha presentat davant el Tribunal Suprem poden acabar donant la raó a l’entitat en aquest conflicte artificial; però, de moment, Acció Cultural ha de pagar les multes que encara té pendents si no vol patir l’embargament dels seus comptes corrents i béns mobles i immobles. Davant aquesta greu situació, el nostre deure és col·laborar a fer front col·lectivament a una multa que en realitat és contra tots els que creiem en la pluralitat informativa i la llibertat d’expressió. Per això, avui, diferents mitjans publiquem aquesta crida pública perquè feu una donació solidària a Acció Cultural (www.acpv.cat): així com junts vam aconseguir les 651.650 signatures per ala ILP, junts hem de reunir els diners necessaris per garantir la continuïtat d’Acció Cultural.

A webpage on the #sensesenyal case, the first European massive protest through the social nets

This is a special page to inform non-Catalan, non-Spanish readers.

If you wish to contribute with links to information on the #sensesenyal case in English, German, French or other languages, you are very welcome to do so.

Please note that this is NOT an opinion but an information webpage. You can find opinion webpages on #sensesenyal in the links section. The administrator will not tolerate any messages of abuse nor incitements to illegal actions.

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‘Sense senyal’ is Catalan for ‘without a signal’ (cf. Twitter and Facebook #sensesenyal). It refers to the fact that more than 3 million Valencian TV viewers of the Spanish Valencian community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencian_Community) have been blackouted, left without a signal of CCRT broadcasting net, whose most popular channel is TV3; hence the slogan ‘#Volem TV3′, ‘we want TV3′ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisi%C3%B3_de_Catalunya).

CCRT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporaci%C3%B3_Catalana_de_R%C3%A0dio_i_Televisi%C3%B3) (http://www.tv3.cat/) is the regional public TV of neighbouring Catalonia, broadly followed in Valencia for the quality of its contents and because it broadcasts all its programmes in Catalan, a language spoken by more than 9 million people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language#Current_number_of_speakers). RTVV, Valencian public local broadcasting network (http://www.rtvv.es/va/) should do so too, as it has as one of its foundation aims promotion of Valencian, the Catalan spoken in the Valencian lands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language). Its main channel Canal 9, however broadcasts most of its programmes in Spanish.

On February the 17^th 2011, local Valencian government – the Generalitat Valenciana – got to shut down all booster stations which had broadcasted TV3 to Valencian lands for 26 years, after harassing for a long period Acció Cultural del País Valencià (ACPV: http://www.acpv.net/), the cultural, non-profit association of citizens which financed TV3 booster network through a popular subscription. The Valencian Government created an ad hoc law late last year by which, retroactively, ACPV is being forced to pay for ‘illegal broadcasting’ fines of at least 600.000 euros, which the non-profit association does not have.

The Generalitat Valenciana is governed by right-wing Partido Popular (party of Iraq war suppporter and former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_%28Spain%29). Many of Valencian PP public figures, including the Generalitat’s president Francisco Camps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Camps), have been accused of multiple corruption cases, especially the Gürtel case (http://storify.com/graeme_sow/the-gurtel-case).

The other main Spanish party, the Partido Socialista Obrero Español, which governed Valencia in the first period of TV3 reception, opted by an ambiguous line because of the legal gap in which ACPV’s popular initiative developed: TV3 is not al illegal channel, but regional channels in Spain are only permitted to broadcast in their area.

However, many other local networks operate illegally in the Valencian area offering tarot readings and sexual chat lines without the Generalitat Valenciana doing anything to shut them down (http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Comunidad/Valenciana/Volem/TV3/elpepiespval/20110219elpval_6/Tes?print=1).

On 2009 ACPV undertook a successful campaign for a petition to the Spanish parliament for full leagalization of all public regional TV broadcasting networks’ mutual reception which collected more than 600.000 signatures. This initiative has not been discussed yet in parliament.

Anger has been rising up since Thursday the 17th. On Friday the 18th Anonymous blackouted the Generalitat Valenciana’s webpage (http://ow.ly/i/8jIk). On Twitter, #sensesenyal has been the main topic in Spain for more than 24 hs.