EU Challenges the UN and OIC on Press Freedom

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American Thinker:

The European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg passed two resolutions Thursday, each detailing a set of recommendations to protect the rights of journalists to speak and print freely. 21

"The EU, as a community of values, should aspire to lead in ensuring the free word, whether blogged or spoken, and information, whether researched or photographed, are protected. Journalists and a free, pluralist media, are essential for democracies and checks on power. Freedom of speech and freedom after speech are at the core of open and free societies," said Marietje Schaake (ALDE, NL), rapporteur for press and media freedom in the world. The EP is the directly elected parliament of the European Union.

The first resolution (2011/2081(INI)), focusing on press freedom, "®ecognizes that governments have the primary responsibility for guaranteeing and protecting freedom of the press and media." The resolution also "points out that governments also have the primary responsibility for hampering freedom of the press and media and, in the worst cases, are increasingly resorting to legal pressures in order to restrict that freedom, e.g. through the abuse of anti-terrorism or anti-extremism legislation and laws on national security, treason or subversion." The EP endorses a "balance" between the concerns of national security and press freedom. The resolution goes further to deplore the fact that "journalists are frequently wounded or murdered or are being subjected to serious abuses throughout the world, often with impunity," and stresses the "importance of combating impunity."