ENPA communicates priorities to Council of Europe on future respect for press freedom

On 26 October at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE) joint hearing in Luxembourg on two important different subjects, “Respect for media freedom in Europe” and “The Protection of Journalists’ Sources of Information”, ENPA delegation raised the awareness of the PACE Sub-committee on the Media on the need to better protect newspapers’ privilege of press freedom on all platforms and not just in print. Specific case-studies on recent challenges to future press freedom in Luxembourg and Czech Republic were also presented.

ENPA was invited to the hearing which was presided by Lord Andrew McIntosh (Labour, UK) and hosted by Anne Brasseur, Member of the Luxembourg Parliament who is also the Chair of the Culture, Education and Science committee of PACE. The hearing was based on the follow-up to a report done for PACE by William Horsley, former BBC journalist, on evaluating current media freedom in Europe according to existing PACE indicators for media in a democracy.

ENPA Treasurer and Honorary President Mr. Alvin Sold, known also as the publisher of Tageblatt/Editpress in Luxembourg gave a special presentation to the members of the sub-committee on media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, along the lines of three points:
- The need for recognition of the high value of the press’ activities on all platforms.
- The importance of fostering the position of the press as an essential element in the digital landscape.
- Protecting the independent press against exercise of direct or indirect political pressure by public authorities on its activities e.g. through advertising.

The case for the importance of the protection of sources for professional journalists and all media enterprise employees, as well as the protection of the title of “journalist” to avoid the devaluation of the profession in the evolving information society was made by the President of the Luxembourg Press Council Danièle Fonck, Deputy Director General of Tageblatt/Editpress who also happens to be the chair of ENPA Working Party on Media Literacy.

Finally, Michal Musil, Deputy Editor of the Czech quality daily newspaper MF DNES made the sub-committee on media an impassioned plea to rally against the recent entry into force of a law in the Czech Republic which has prevented journalists’ access to police wiretapping sources and thus their ability to report on cases in the public interest. The law has the intention of preventing publication from any such sources under a heavy fine of around EURO 180 000 and a jail sentence for any breach. Although a complaint has been lodged in the Constitutional Court against the law, it was too late to prevent it from entering into force and therefore posing the risk of inspiration of such laws for other countries.

The sub-committee will now draft its political recommendation by December 2009 with a view to adoption in early 2010. The speeches made by ENPA members are available upon request.