Media responsibility and ethics in a changing media environment

Recommendation 2075 (2015)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 24 June 2015 (24th Sitting) (see Doc. 13803, report of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, rapporteur: Mr Volodymyr Ariev). Text adopted by the Assembly on 24 June 2015 (24th Sitting).

1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution 2066 (2015) on media responsibility and ethics in a changing media environment as well as to the following texts of the Committee of Ministers: Resolution (74) 26 on the right of reply – Position of the individual in relation to the press, and Recommendations Rec(2004)16 to member States on the right of reply in the new media environment and No. R (97) 21 on the media and the promotion of a culture of tolerance.

2. The Assembly welcomes the fact that media freedom is a priority for the Council of Europe and recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

2.1 call on member States to introduce, where this has not yet been done, a right of reply into their domestic laws and to ensure that such a right of reply granted by the media is legally recognised by the courts in case of judicial proceedings against those media for the same facts;

2.2 produce guidelines for governments in order to support media self-regulation nationally while respecting media freedom in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5);

2.3 strengthen programmes aimed at raising self-regulatory ethical standards among journalists and the media, including support for professional training of journalists and support for public service broadcasters to set ethical standards such as the Editorial Principles and Guidelines by the European Broadcasting Union;

2.4 provide for more practical activities by the Council of Europe, such as the No Hate Speech Movement by the Council of Europe’s youth sector and the Media in Europe for Diversity Inclusiveness (MEDIANE) and Media Against Racism in Sport (MARS) programmes of the European Federation of Journalists and the Council of Europe.