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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
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Continued from the Home page The AEJ has challenged member states to put aside narrow state interests to better protect the lives and rights of journalists who work to hold power to account. The CoE's Committee of Ministers has
acknowledged the severe threat to European democracy that stems from violence
against journalists and restrictions on press freedom, and in response issued
its Declaration
of 13 January 2010 on measures to promote
respect for Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on
Human Rights, and its Decision
of 18 January 2012 to "strengthen the impact of [the CoE's]
activities in the field of media freedom". The AEJ welcomes the renewed focus on these issues but says that clearly the
steps being proposed, such as an
unspecified “information-gathering” system and an annual thematic
debate among Ministers’ Deputies, are still
far from adequate. We call on the CoE to set up
effective new mechanisms for monitoring and intervention, backed by a clear
and tangible demonstration of political will. Those things are urgently
needed to counter the alarming spread of violent attacks and legal abuses
directed at journalists. A broad coalition of expert organisations
and stakeholders, including the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ),
Article 19, Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute
(IPI), as well as the AEJ, is demanding more effective and coherent actions
by governments within Europe and beyond to reverse these dangerous and
widespread patterns of violence, intimidation and censorship. Already in 2009, AEJ Media Freedom Representative William Horsley
wrote the Respect
for Media Freedom Report for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE), chronicling the killings of 20 journalists in the previous
three years and a widespread pattern of violence and abuse of state power
directed at journalists because of their work. That report helped to inform the PACE Recommendation
to Ministers aimed at countering threats to press freedom, including
violence, arbitrary prosecutions and jailings of journalists, editorial
interference and excessive secrecy. The AEJ deeply regrets that European ministers have failed to enact
the needed safeguards recommended by parliamentarians, and have so far failed
to implement their own 2010 Declaration
on Respect for Article 10. We are committed to working constructively
with others to improve the record of the Council of Europe in protecting the
universal right to freedom of expression. Governments have also signally failed to fulfil their pledge at the 2009 Ministerial Conference in Reykjavik to review anti-terrorism laws and practices to ensure compliance with Council of Europe norms and standards. Many journalists are being unlawfully prosecuted and jailed because state secrecy and terrorism laws are misused for political purposes in CoE member states. Leading European NGOs and human rights experts have written three
times to the CoE Secretary General in person – most recently in a letter
dated 8 February 2012 – to urge him to take steps urgently to
remedy this lapse. But Mr Jagland The explicit protest of many of the world The AEJ supports other
CoE campaigns, including anti-discrimination in the media (since
2009). William Horsley and Zdenko Duka ( The AEJ expects that the CoE Ministerial Conference to be held in
Belgrade in 2013 will take stock in a transparent way of the successes and
failures of the organisation |
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News Please
refer to Past Events for news
from previous years 3 May 2013 World Press
Freedom Day was celebrated by AEJ
sections across Europe. The UK section supported the NUJ's meeting on 2 May on solidarity with Turkish journalists. UNESCO's annual conference was held in Costa Rica on 2-4 May.
William Horsley, AEJ Media Freedom Representative, spoke on fighting impunity for crimes of
violence against journalists. 30 April 2013 Europe guilty too as World Press Freedom Day targets growing threats to journalists. This is a blog written by William Horsley for the BBC Academy's College of Journalism website. 22 March 2013 The AEJ welcomed
the announcement
of a public consultation on media freedom and pluralism in the EU by
Commissioner Neelie Kroes on 22 March. The AEJ has told the Commission
that we will take part actively in the debate on the role and powers of the
EU in safeguarding media freedom in the face of multiple threats, especially
those arising from misuses of state power against independent media. 7 February 2013 The AEJ's Media Freedom Representative addressed the final conference of the Mediadem Project in Brussels on 7 February on the instruments and processes that would best support free and independent media in democratic societies. The AEJ had been a partner in the EU-sponsored Mediadem Project with the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy and the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities. Its comparative research findings and its recommendations were presented to the conference. The Mediadem website has published a full account of the conference. 17 January 2013 By the end of 2012, UNESCO’s record showed that as many as 115 journalists were killed during the year. Journalists and NGOs from Europe, with representatives of the Council of Europe and OSCE, played an active part in an important UN conference in Vienna late last year. Members of the global media community delivered the London Statement on journalists' safety and the impunity that often protects those responsible for the deaths of journalists. See video (5min20sec). Since then, UNESCO has consulted further with media
organisations and others and drawn up an ambitious implementation strategy
for the UN
Plan, including 120 lines of action by UN agencies, governments and
social groups. 15 January 2013 The latest in-depth report for the Council of
Europe on the State of Media Freedom in Europe finds that physical assaults
and judicial harassment of journalists and media workers in southern and
eastern Europe grew more intense in the second half of 2012. The report was
written by AEJ Media Freedom Representative William Horsley at the request of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. For a summary, see www.aej.org 9 November 2012 On 6
November, William Horsley addressed the European Parliament hearing in
Brussels on media freedom in the
EU. He called on the EU to defend media freedom and to safeguard
journalists' physical safety in accordance with the European Convention and
Council of Europe standards. 1 November 2012: A very successful session was held at the
AEJ's annual congress at Offida on 26 October. The AEJ's international
website includes a report
of the event. Overviews by William Horsley and Krzysztof Bobinski and reports
from nine countries with major media freedom problems appear on the Media Freedom Survey page. 26 June 2012: The Report on the state of media
freedom in Europe 2009-12 was presented to the Council of Europe by its
author, William Horsley, on 26 June. It studies the situation in CoE member
countries and makes disturbing reading. 17 June 2012: William Horsley has called on the BBC to
lead by example in the defence of press freedom and journalistic independence
throughout the greater Europe in a forceful
blog on Open Democracy. 8 May 2012: The European Parliament and AEJ held a
seminar in Brussels on "Media Freedom in the EU Member States". See
the AEJ's internatonal website,
including a full report
by Krzysztof Bobinski of the AEJ's Polish Section. 3 May 2012: The UK World Press Freedom Day Debate
was on the theme "Strasbourg: Journalists' Foe or Friend?" 20 April 2012: UK
hails "substantial" reforms of Europe's Human Rights Court, but
what difference will they make? – Report by William Horsley on the Brighton Conference on
reform of the European Convention on Human Rights. 5 April 2012: Pressure on Turkey
to release all 95 journalists in jail has been stepped up by the OSCE
Representative on Freedom of the Media. A new report highlights the use of
anti-terrorism and other laws to silence those reporting the Kurdish struggle
for civil and political rights. See www.aej.org 13 March 2012: The AEJ called
on the Turkish government to put a stop to the bullying of employees and
union-busting techniques used by the Anatolian News Agency. See www.aej.org 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. See also 13 June 2011, below. 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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