Council of Europe

  Journalism education
Azerbaijan

  Elections
Azerbaijan
Bosnia and Herzegovina

  European Convention on Human Rights

  Committee of Ministers

  Parliamentary Assembly

Venice Commission

 Commissioner for Human Rights

 Living together

  Guidelines, Media in times of crisis

  Converging media - convergent regulators

Our main goal is to promote freedom of expression and information and freedom of the media in line with the Council of Europe standards. These standards – conventions, recommendations, declarations, guidelines, etc. – are based on Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. Our co-operation activities in the media field include legal expertises, training programmes, seminars, conferences and other events with the participation mainly of public officials, media professionals and civil society. The implications of new communication technologies are also explored.

News

Living together: Council of Europe Conference (17-18 November 2011, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
[27 October 2011, Strasbourg] A major event, a conference to be opened by the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is entitled “Living together: conference on combating hate speech in South-Eastern Europe” and it will address the issue of hate speech in the media in some of the Council of Europe member states where the problem is most worrying. Its aim will be to increase the awareness of this phenomenon and of relevant Council of Europe standards, as well as exchanging experience amongst various players and eventually contributing to the fight against hate speech.
Hate speech is an abuse of the right to freedom of expression and an attack on the foundations of democracy. The Council of Europe contributes to the elimination of racial discrimination and intolerance not only through the enforcement of the European Convention on Human Rights by the European Court of Human Rights but also through the recourse to non-binding instruments such as recommendations of the Committee of Ministers and of the Parliamentary Assembly.

Agenda
Background paper
 

For a fair media coverage of the election campaign in Tunisia  
[09 September 2011, Strasbourg] In view of the elections on 23 October 2011 of a Constituent Assembly which will draft the new constitution of Tunisia, the Venice Commission and the Media Section of the Council of Europe organised training for Tunisian trainers on fair and balanced media coverage of elections. The training took place in Strasbourg between 6 and 9 September and was accompanied by meetings with French and German journalists as well as with the Secretary General and other representatives of the Council of Europe and of the local authorities. The Tunisian experts will, upon their return, train Tunisian journalists.
The training programme is funded by a financial contribution from the government of the Netherlands. 

Regional network of press councils established  
[16 June 2011, Strasbourg] Representatives of media self-regulatory bodies from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine agreed to create an informal network of press councils. The network will serve as a platform for regional cooperation and exchange of information and experience. It will aim at raising the profile and  the effectiveness of the media self-regulatory mechanisms in each country. The network will cooperate, among others, with the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe and the worldwide Organisation of News Ombudsmen.
The agreement was reached on 9-10 June 2011 in Chisinau at a Regional meeting on media self-regulation organised by the Council of Europe in co-operation with the Press Council of Moldova. The participants established a working group to draft a statute and a short-term work plan of the network. Mr Petru Macovei, Secretary of the Press Council of Moldova, was elected as coordinator of the group. The meeting is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe.