Europe backs media blackout

During the week following the Italian media strike on July 9, protesting the government’s controversial wiretapping law, several International and European civil society organisations are urging the Italian government to amend the bill and calling on the European Parliament to take action.

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) warns that this draft law is an attempt to censor journalists and to prevent citizens from getting information on issues of public interest. “This is not only a fight by Italian journalists and supporters of civil liberties but a European fight for press freedom and the citizens’ right to know,” said Arne Konig, EFJ President. He said that Berlusconi’s government’s draft law breaks international conventions and to the case-law of the European court of Human Rights. The Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI), the Italian trade union for press and media, “supported by the EFJ is ready to take this to the European Court of Human Rights,” he concluded.

Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-Francois Julliard (photo) expressed the organizations support in a video and a press release posted on the organisations web site. “We hail this protest by the Italian media,” he said. “As a founder member of the European Union, Italy has a permanent responsibility in the defence of civil liberties. This bill must not be allowed to undermine this commitment…What credibility will the European Parliament be able to maintain if it rightly condemns the repressive practises in other countries while tolerating them in one of its own?”

Back in June when the bill was passed by the Italian Senate, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) made its concern over the bill known.  The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic said that the bill “marks a trend towards criminalizing journalistic work.”