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UK SECTION |
The AEJ is active across the continent
of Europe. Please visit its website, www.aej.org |
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The AEJ's Media Freedom
Project |
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Freedom of the media is a cherished principle throughout Europe. It is also one that can be easily eroded, whether flagrantly or by stealth. The AEJ, with members dispersed across the continent, is well placed to keep track of how the principle is honoured in the real world, and how far it is discarded for commercial convenience or political ends. In 2006, the AEJ decided to launch the Media Freedom Network at its annual congress in Oviedo. William Horsley, former BBC foreign correspondent and chairman of the UK section, leads the project as AEJ Media Freedom Representative. The Network's first achievement was the survey of media freedom in Europe, Goodbye to Freedom? Published to great acclaim at the Dublin Congress in 2007, this was supplemented by two further surveys in 2008 and country reports in 2009 and 2010. All documents are accessible on the Survey page Since 2008, the AEJ has had observer status at the Council of Europe's Steering Committee on Media and New Communication Services (CDMC). This committee sets norms and standards relating to the media's work and seeks to protect the media's legitimate rights in a democracy. The Committee is compiling a database of serious violations of media freedom by states. The standard is set by the CoE's Indicators for Media in a Democracy and includes violence and wrongful police action against journalists, undue editorial interference and lack of access to information. William Horsley, who represents the AEJ at the Council of Europe, is also active on its working group that aims to ensure that anti-terrorism laws are not misused to block legitimate freedom of expression. The AEJ supports the Council of Europe's 2009 anti-discrimination campaign. William Horsley has taken part in the meetings of the Group of Experts on Media and Diversity. In the general context of the Media Freedom Project, the AEJ is also closely associated with World Press Freedom Day. Media Freedom
Representative’s Annual Report to the AEJ General Assembly Bucharest, 11 November 2011 The AEJ has been
part of an intense Europe-wide struggle by journalists and non-governmental
organisations to stand up against governments’ restrictions on media
freedom and moves that endanger journalists’ safety. Members in all
sections are encouraged to keep informed on these developments, which are
affecting the work of journalists across Europe, and consider how their own
sections may play a part. The AEJ Media
Freedom Representative has spent four years taking an active part in
policy debates with the Council of Europe and the European Union’s
institutions, as well as various campaigns. The AEJ’s voice is well
recognised and able to speak up in defence of our common interests and rights
as journalists. On 3 May, World
Press Freedom Day, voluntary contributions from AEJ members enabled
Javier Fernandez, AEJ vice-president, to join Dogan Tilic in Istanbul at a
major gathering to protest the imprisonment of over 60 Turkish journalists
and call for the repeal of repressive Turkish laws regarding the media and
free expression. Many other AEJ
sections held special events, including protests and debates, to raise
public awareness of the importance of press freedom. We took part in
website and letter campaigns related to the wrongful imprisonment of
more than 60 journalist and other forms of oppression of free media in
Turkey, repeated abuses of state power and law against journalists in
Belarus, and severe concerns about the impact on media independence of
Hungary’s package of media laws. NB 23 November is now International Day Against Impunity. Over the past
year, the AEJ website www.aej.org carried
30 news items and features about current issues for media freedom, including
the AEJ Media Freedom Representative’s presentations at
international forums, including the European Commission’s Speak Up! For Freedom of Expression conference
in Brussels on 6 May, the OSCE’s Conference on Safety of Journalists in
Vilnius on 7-8 September, and the UN Inter-Agency Meeting on Safety of
Journalists and the Issue of Impunity at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters on
13 September. Council of Europe: Major developments MF violations: The AEJ, with IFJ and others,
publicly protested at the failure of member states to implement their promise
from January 2010 to gather data on serious media freedom violations across
Europe and take new steps to ensure respect for Article 10 (freedom of
expression) of the European Convention. Anti-terrorism laws: The AEJ, with 40 other
organisations, wrote to Council of Europe Secretary-General Thornbjorn
Jagland for a third time in July 2011 to protest at the failure of the
Secretary-General and the Committee of Ministers to ensure that states fulfil
their promise to review national anti-terrorism laws, and amend them to
comply with Article 10. See also the AEJ Media Freedom Representative’s Report to the 2011 Congress William Horsley AEJ Media Freedom Representative 11 November 2011 |
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News Please
refer to Past Events for news
from previous years 19 January
2012: The UN Human Rights Committee gave its definitive
interpretation of article 19 of the International Covenant, published as “General
Comment 34”. Professor Michael O’Flaherty, the
Committee’s Deputy Chair, gave a speech in June
outlining the Committee’s main findings at the Vilnius Conference on
the safety of journalists (below). 7 December
2011: Firdevs Robinson, an experienced journalist and editor and AEJ
UK Section member, raised a thorny question at a recent Council of Europe gathering
in Luxembourg on the controversial issue of the media’s role in
promoting inter-religious dialogue. Read her comment here 5 December 2011:
William Horsley has authored the Guidebook
on Safety of Journalists for the 56 states of the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in The Guidebook sets out the obligations of OSCE participating states regarding all aspects of the safety of journalists, and describes best practice for protecting press freedom and freedom of expression in democratic societies. 12 November 2011: At the
AEJ’s Bucharest Congress,
the topic of the day-long debate was “Freedom and Responsibility
in the Mass Media”. A resolution
calling on the Turkish authorities to stop persecuting journalists was
adopted. 22 October 2011: International Day to End Impunity – 23
November 2011. More than 500 journalists have been killed worldwide in the past 10
years, but in 9 out of 10 cases the killers have not been brought to justice. The
International Day is organised by IFEX, the International Freedom of
Expression Exchange, and is supported by the AEJ. Each day from 1 to 23
November, the story of one journalist, writer or free expression advocate
killed in the line of duty was featured on IFEX’s website. See video 13 June 2011: In the past ten
years, 41 journalists have been the object of targeted murders in OSCE
countries. AEJ Media Freedom
Representative William Horsley called on the 56 member states to ratify the Vilnius Recommendations put forward
at an OSCE conference on the safety of journalists on 7-8 June (see his report). William Horsley is also active in the Initiative on Impunity and the
Rule of Law (above), a joint project of the University of Sheffield and
City University. He has written a study of the political aspects that
accompanies a study of the legal instruments needed to give effect to the
initiative. Both documents can be found on the Sheffield website, together with
many other contributions made at a conference on the initiative, held at City
University on 1 June. 30 May 2011 – The Council of
Europe's Secretary General appointed a special envoy to assess freedom of
expression in Turkey. See CoE press release 28 March 2011: In response to a further serious
deterioration of media freedom conditions in Why? What is happening in Turkey?
by AEJ Vice-President L Dogan Tilic Please sign the petition
calling for the release journalists in prison and repeal of the laws that
were used to punish them 27 January
2011 – Media self-regulation and codes of ethics
are good, but free and independent media can only exist if governments themselves
practise self-restraint and hold back from attempts to own, control or
manipulate the media. This message was urged by the AEJ’s Media Freedom
Representative, William Horsley, at a UNESCO Conference for international
journalists. 21 January
2011 – The documents
delivered to the AEJ's 2010 congress in Ordu, Turkey, are now available online. These include country
reports on Armenia, Belarus,
Bulgaria
(PowerPoint) and Ukraine,
and "Information
without Borders" –
a speech by Birgitta Jonsdottir, Icelandic MP and author of the Icelandic
Modern Media Initiative. See also Survey |
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