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Committee calls on national parliaments to deliver policies for culture based on Council of Europe values

18/12/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

PACE Culture Committee considers that national parliaments should deliver policies for culture “which effectively uphold our common core values” – human rights, democracy and the rule of law. These policies should also ensure adequate access to education and support participation in cultural life, creativity and innovation.

Hearing on violence in the audiovisual media

14/12/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

PACE Committee on culture, science, education and media will hold on Tuesday 18 December a hearing organised in conjunction with the French Senate committee on culture, education and communication on violence in the audiovisual media and its effects on children and society, with the participation of several international experts.

FIFA governance under the spotlight at PACE hearing in Paris

11/12/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

A Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly hearing on governance at the world football body FIFA is to take place in Paris on 19 December, attended by leading current or former members of the organisation as well as those who have sought reforms to encourage greater transparency.

How parliaments can protect the independence of public service broadcasting

17/10/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

PACE members from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macdonia" have agreed a number of steps that parliaments can take to ensure the political independence of public service broadcasting in the region, as well as its stable and secure funding. Public service broadcasters, academics and civil society representatives joined the parliamentarians to discuss the issue at a seminar in Zagreb on 15 October.

Media freedom: PACE committee seeks action from Russia, Turkey, Hungary and Belarus

11/10/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

PACE’s Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, in a wide-ranging assessment of the state of media freedom in Europe, has demanded that Council of Europe member States properly investigate and hold liable the instigators of attacks on investigative journalists and those working with them.

FIFA kickbacks: Joseph Blatter has questions to answer, says PACE rapporteur

13/07/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

Reacting to the publication of Swiss court documents yesterday, François Rochebloine (France, EPP/CD), author of a recent report for the PACE on good governance and ethics in sport, has made the following statement: “At last, under pressure from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and others, FIFA has made public the details of a shocking scandal at the heart of world football: millions of Swiss Francs rightfully belonging to the sport went into the pockets of some of its most senior administrators."

A platform for dialogue between the Council of Europe, the religious faiths and the humanist organisations

31/05/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

Addressing the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana (Kazakhstan), former PACE President Mevlüt Cavusoglu today renewed PACE’s recent call for the establishment of a stable platform for dialogue between the Council of Europe, the religious faiths and the main humanist organisations in order to promote a partnership for democracy and human rights...

World Press Freedom Day 2012: media freedom is the air necessary for democracy to breathe

02/05/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

“As the media have developed from Gutenberg's printing press to the internet in a globalised information society, universal human rights such as media freedom have become part of a universal culture embedded in the hearts and minds of people all around the world," said Deborah Bergamini (Italy, EPP/CD).

New update to PACE draft report suggests FIFA leadership may have known of backhanders

23/04/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

It is “difficult to imagine” that FIFA’s leadership would not have known of significant sums paid to certain FIFA officials in the context of contracts with collapsed Swiss sports promoter ISMM/ISL for World Cup television rights, according to the author of a PACE report due to be debated on Wednesday this week.

PACE rapporteur outlines strategy for combating match-fixing to sports ministers

16/03/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE), PACE rapporteur on match-fixing, has outlined a seven-point plan, or “holistic strategy” for combating the problem of fraudulent betting, match-fixing and corruption in sport. Addressing European ministers of sport yesterday at a conference in Belgrade, she listed the Assembly’s proposals for dealing with the problem: awareness-raising and training of young athletes, closer co-ordination between police and judges, working with sports authorities and betting operators to improve detection of fraud, banning bets on the most vulnerable competitions, and stronger, more dissuasive sanctions against perpetrators.

PACE committee seeks to throw light on scandals at ‘tarnished’ FIFA

07/03/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

Football’s governing body FIFA should open an internal investigation into whether the candidates in its recent election for President – and particularly the successful candidate – exploited their institutional positions to obtain “unfair advantages for themselves or for potential voters”, according to a PACE committee.

PACE committee says harmonised laws against match-fixing now ‘urgent’

07/03/2012 | Culture, Science, Education and Media

Harmonised laws to combat ‘match-fixing’ came a step closer yesterday when PACE’s Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media unanimously called on the Council of Europe’s 47 member states to draw up a convention – or binding international treaty – against match-fixing and illegal betting. Meeting in Paris, the committee said the need for such a legal instrument was now “urgent”.