Council of Europe: Report on the protection of media freedom in Europe

The Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has recently adopted a new Report on the protection of media freedom in Europe.

The Report highlights the general deterioration of the journalists safety and media freedom in Europe, regardless whether it is in a conflict areas or not, thus confirming the non-compliance of the EU states to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) concerning the standards established for freedom of the press.

Italy is criticised for not having adopted the new law on defamation even if it was repeatedly condemned by the European Court for the violation of freedom of the press. Concerns are also related to the criminal sanctions envisaged and applied in the Italian law as well as to the measures ordered against journalists by the judicial authority.

In the next few days the Parliamentary Assembly will approve the Report. The Assemby is required to adopt a resolution which invites the national parliaments to discuss freedom of the press and on to adopt the "Media Identity Card " which will clrearly display the owners of newspapers, the advertisers and the donors.