COUNCIL CONSEIL OF EUROPE DE L'EUROPE Committee of Ministers Comite des Ministres Records CM/Dei/Act(2004)901 (Confidential) 18 November 2004 901st meeting (in camera), 21 October 2004 Summary Records Addendum to CM/Dei/Dec(2004)901 CONTENTS1 Page 1. General questions 1.1 Adoption of the Agenda and Order of Business (Chairman's proposals) ............................................ 2 2. Political questions .............................................................................................................................. 2 2.1 Freedom of expression and information ............................................................................................... 2 (i) Exchange of views with the General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly on the media and with the Chairperson of the Steering Committee on the Mass Media .................................. 2 (ii) Issues raised in document CM/Monitor(2004)7 ........................................................................... 3 (iii) Posible follow-up action ............................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Thematic monitoring: choice of new themes ....................................................................................... 4 2.3 Relations with the Parliamentary Assembly ........................................................................................ 5 3. Any other business ............................................................................................................................ 5 Appendices ...................................................................................................................................................... 6 1 The Decisions of the 901 st meeting of the Deputies are set out in document CM/Dei/Dec(2004)901, distributed on 25 October 2004, which also contains the agenda of the meeting. CM/Dei/Act(2004)901 2 CONFIDENTIAL 1. General questions 1.1. Adoption of the Agenda and Order of Business (Chairman's proposals) 1. The agenda and order of business were adopted, as they appear in documents CM/Dei/OJ(2004)901 and CM/Dei/OT(2004)901. 2. Political questions 2.1. Freedom of expression and information (i) Exchange of views with the General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly on the media and with the Chairperson of the Steering Committee on the Mass Media (CDMM) 2. The Portuguese Ambassador. acting as Chair of the meeting, welcomed Mr. Paschal Mooney, General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly on the Media (Committee on Culture, Science and Education), and Ms Alessandra Paradisi, Chairperson of the CDMM, who agreed to take part in this in camera monitoring meeting. The exchange of views between the Ministers' Deputies and both invitees focused on two particular aspects: interaction between institutions and issues raised in the context of the Parliamentary Assembly and the CDMM work on freedom of the media. - Interaction between institutions 3. The Assembly General Rapporteur explained that freedom of expression and information remains a key area of interest for the Parliamentary Assembly in the context of the work carried out by both its Monitoring Committee and its Committee on Culture, Science and Education. He further stated that the Rapporteur's role mainly consisted of helping member states to find adequate solutions in a spirit of dialogue. He considered that, in parallel, the Committee of Ministers remains the primary actor in this field as it is still the only organ capable to mobilise all the necessary resources and expertise to carry out an in­ depth and regular review of the state of freedom of expression and information in member states. He remarked that, unlike the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe does not have at its disposal a permanent and specialised body dealing with freedom of the media. He therefore indicated that it is vital that the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly develop new ways of interaction. As illustrated by this exchange of views, the participation of representatives of one organ in the work of the other is an element of interaction. In this context, he indicated that he would ask the Assembly Committee on Culture, Science and Education to decide on a date when a representative of the Ministers' Deputies could be invited to a Committee meeting. Another aspect of interaction is circulation of information. On the latter issue, the General Rapporteur reminded the Deputies that the Parliamentary Assembly called upon the Committee of Ministers to transmit the results of its monitoring of freedom of expression. In this particular context, he deplored that only Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine reacted positively to the Assembly's appeal. Relevant documentation could be regularly transmitted to the Assembly (see also, in this connection, Appendix 8). The Representatives of Ireland and the Netherlands particularly supported the idea of better communication and co-ordination between both organs, including transmission of documents from one to the other. At the same time, the Representatives of Bulgaria, Turkey and Italy explained that the Committee of Ministers' thematic monitoring procedure is intimately linked to the principle of confidentiality. 4. For her part, the Chairperson of the CDMM underlined the unique standard-setting role of the CDMM, under the Committee of Ministers' authority, in the field of freedom of expression and information. She recalled, for instance, the adoption of several recommendations by the executive organ in relation to broadcasting. The adoption, by the Deputies, of a Declaration on freedom of political debate in the media earlier this year, taking into account the results of their monitoring, is another concrete example. She remarked that the Committee of Ministers monitoring on this theme plays an essential role in re-adjusting CDMM work and in the follow-up given by member states to the relevant recommendations as adopted by the Committee of Ministers. Particular emphasis should be therefore placed on contacts and communications between the executive organ and the CDMM. In this context, the Chairwoman of the CDMM recalled that the 7th European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy will be organised in Kiev from 10 to 12 March 2005 (hereafter the Kiev Conference). In reply to the Representative of Belgium, the 3 CM/Dei/Act(2004)901 CONFIDENTIAL Chairperson of the CDMM indicated that the OSCE and the CDMM co-operate in a way which respects each institution's specificity. In early November 2004, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Mr Miklos Haraszti, will take part in the 62nd CDMM meeting. - Issues raised in the context of the Parliamentary Assembly and CDMM work 5. In their respective sphere of work, the Parliamentary Assembly and the CDMM have identified a number of issues which merit further consideration. The Assembly General Rapporteur indicated that there is a need for continued monitoring of the following questions: difficulties encountered in the field of broadcasting (regulation and public service institutions), legal issues (defamation, access to information and protection of journalistic sources) and violence against journalists. Likewise, he further explained that an increased attention should be paid to a number of issues: media and terrorism, media concentration, media and the market, media and advertising, media and spin as well as the role of the media in a democratic society. The Chairperson of the CDMM emphasised that a draft Action Plan has been prepared in view of the forthcoming Kiev Conference. It mainly focuses on three sub-themes: freedom of expression and information in times of crisis; cultural and media diversity in times of globalisation; human rights and regulation of the media and new communication services in the information society. In reply to the Representative of the Netherlands, the Chairperson of the CDMM pointed out that the Ministers' Deputies, through their current monitoring exercise on freedom of expression and information, have the opportunity to contribute to the Kiev Conference and its outcome. 6. The Representatives of the Czech Republic, Romania and Switzerland placed particular emphasis on the journalists' responsibilities and ethics, notably through appropriate education and regulation. The Assembly General Rapporteur and the Chairperson of the CDMM favoured the setting-up of strong self­ regulation mechanisms, which secure the effective implementation by journalists of their own code of ethics. In this context, as pinpointed by the Representative of Portugal, both the Assembly General Rapporteur and the Chairperson of the CDMM agreed that terrorism creates many challenges in terms of freedom of information, as illustrated by recent hostage-takings in Iraq and in the Russian Federation (Beslan). The Assembly General Rapporteur thought it was particularly advisable that awareness-raising measures be taken in this regard. The Chairperson of the CDMM recalled that her Committee was preparing a Declaration on freedom of expression and information in the context of the fight against terrorism for adoption by the Committee of Ministers. In this connection, the Representative of France recalled that Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as interpreted by the Strasbourg Court, also imposes legal obligations to protect freedom of expression and information in the media. 7. As concerns legal restrictions to journalists' activities,