The Association of European Journalists is among
the organisations that will take part in an ambitious new scheme to
collect data about threats and attacks against journalists, which
will be published on a website run by the Council of Europe. The
online ‘Freedom of Expression Platform’ will act as an ‘alert’ or
‘early warning system’ flagging up threats and assaults against
members of the media. Mr Jagland has declared that the platform will
enable the Council of Europe, the continent’s primary guardian of
human rights, to take ‘protective and remedial action’ to enhance
the safety of journalists.
A month before the recent killings, on 4 December
2014, journalists’ organisations and NGOs came together with Mr
Jagland in the French Senate in Paris. In the presence of
parliamentarians from across Europe they signed a memorandum of
understanding.
The Council of Europe’s deputy secretary-general,
Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, told the gathering that she looked
forward to ‘immediate statements’ and quick, dynamic moves by the
Council of Europe in the light of such data on concrete cases of
violence and legal intimidation. The agreement to set up the ‘online
platform’ was earlier approved by representatives of the member
states. Governmental authorities in countries where serious
incidents are recorded will also be asked to respond to reported
incidents with their own comments and explanations, which may also
be published.
The ground-breaking scheme is the result of years
of lobbying by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
as well as journalists’ associations and NGOs. It is due to be up
and running early in 2015, though the exact date has not yet been
set.
William Horsley, the AEJ’s vice-president and
media freedom representative, called the long-awaited agreement a
potential ‘breakthrough’, which should make governments more
responsive to evidence of serious threats to life and abuses which
obstruct the legitimate work of journalists. He appealed to European
governments to implement legal and practical protections for
independent journalism without delay, in line with agreed standards
and rulings by the European Court of Human Rights. It was vital, he
said, to ensure that all attacks on the media are effectively
investigated and punished, in accordance with ministerial
commitments on protecting journalists’ safety that had been made in
the past but not yet properly honoured.
Jim Boumelha, the president of the International
Federation of Journalists, welcomed the platform initiative, and
said the IFJ and European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) would work
with the Council of Europe to develop it into ‘an important rapid
response mechanism’.
In a statement, Reporters Without Borders said it
hoped that the initiative would lead to concrete actions. ‘RWB will
pay close attention to the Council of Europe’s response to the cases
brought to its attention’, the statement said.
For Article 19 the organisation’s senior legal
counsel, David Banisar, also voiced hopes that the scheme would
bring real improvements. He pointed out that in 2009 the governments
of Europe had made a public commitment to review their
anti-terrorism laws and practice so that they conform with the
Article 10 provisions on freedom of expression in the European
Convention on Human Rights, but he said that promise had not been
fulfilled. David Banisar authored an expert report for the Council
of Europe which highlighted governmental and judicial abuses in that
area.
Read the Council of Europe’s press release
on the ‘rapid reaction’ platform for journalists under threat.
William Horsley represents the AEJ as an
independent member of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts
on Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists . This year
the committee will produce a Draft Recommendation to the Committee
of Ministers following the Resolutions on safety of journalists that
were adopted at the Conference of Ministers responsible for Media
and Information Society in Belgrade in November 2013. |