According to the Council of Europe Safety of Journalists Platform, 54 journalists and other media actors are currently in detention in member States.
The report of the Parliamentary Assembly on which Resolution 2532 (2024) “Guaranteeing media freedom and the safety of journalists: an obligation of member States” is based, adopted on 25 January 2024, recalls that many journalists are still detained in Türkiye and Azerbaijan. In the United Kingdom, Julien Assange has been incarcerated for five years in a high security prison, prosecuted for denouncing war crimes and torture. Spanish journalist Pablo González has been detained in Poland since 28 February 2022, held incommunicado in solitary confinement, without any contact with his family. His pre-trial detention was extended for the seventh time, without evidence and on the basis of unfounded charges, thus violating the presumption of innocence. Spanish journalists' associations denounce the lack of transparency on the part of the Polish authorities.
Ms Castel
To ask the Committee of Ministers:
How does the Committee of Ministers intend to ensure that the guarantees offered to journalists by the European Convention on Human Rights are respected and to combat the chilling effect on freedom of expression and the media?