04/12/2014 Culture, Science, Education and Media
Opening a conference on media freedom and journalists' safety (French only), held by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today in Paris, Assembly President, Anne Brasseur, called for an end to crimes against journalists "who pay with their lives and sacrifice their safety or freedom to guarantee us access to information, including within Council of Europe member States."
"I have long been extremely concerned that certain member States of our Organisation are incapable of complying with their obligations to safeguard freedom of expression and respect journalists' physical integrity" she continued.
"According to information supplied by the Committee to Protect Journalists, in Russia, for example, no one has been brought before the courts for the assassination of Dmitry Kholodov, a journalist killed 20 years ago. In the meantime the murders of over two dozen journalists have been perpetrated in Russia with total impunity. In Azerbaijan, which only recently chaired the Committee of Ministers, journalists who criticise the authorities continue to be imprisoned, as is also the case with human rights defenders. In Turkey, despite a recent decrease in the number in prison, journalists continue to face constant harassment and censorship. Lastly, the Committee to Protect Journalists also reports a decline in media freedom in Hungary" she said.
"The figures cited by Reporters without Borders for 2014 are chilling and show the urgency of the situation: 62 journalists and 19 netizens or citizen journalists were killed in 2014, while 176 journalists and 178 netizens were imprisoned."
The PACE President also highlighted the importance of legal instruments to guarantee media independence, particularly regarding the protection of sources and the fight against corruption, and of independent judicial systems to combat impunity.
Welcoming the fact that theCouncil of Europe has today launched an online platform to promote media protection and journalists' safety, she pointed out that the Parliamentary Assembly had proposed such an instrument in 2010, when it asked the Committee of Ministers to allocate resources for the collection, analysis and electronic exchange of information on breaches of journalists' and media freedoms.
"Like Reporters without Borders, we need to adopt the slogan 'Don't wait to be deprived of news to stand up and fight for it'" concluded Anne Brasseur.