‘Press freedom is a reliable barometer of the state of democracy. The EU’s failure to live up to its own standards undermines its influence on the rest of the world’, said Jean-Paul Marthoz, author of the report ‘Balancing Act: ‘Press Freedom at risk as EU struggles to match action with values’.*
Marthoz, a Belgian journalist and longtime press freedom and human rights activist: ‘The EU likes to present itself as a model of press freedom. Indeed a respectable number of EU countries top the international press freedom rankings, and confronted authoritarian states bent on restricting free speech and disciplining critical journalists’. However as documented in his report the EU record is far from immaculate, and too often shows a nagging lack of consistency between ideals and actions.
EU’s defence of press freedom has mainly been tailored to traditional foreign policy criteria, such as security interests or trade relations. Key economic or geopolitical actors, not only China but also the US (Guantanamo, death penalty) do not have much to fear from Brussels. This inconsistency is fed by the EU’s own internal contradictions. The EU has issued elaborate guidelines on freedom of expression for other countries, but a majority of its member states still keep such laws in their judicial arsenal. Hungary is the best (?) example.
This credibility gap affects EU’s capacity to act as an exemplary global power. Authoritarian governments are pointing at the EU’s checkered record to justify their misdeeds. Russia has been particularly adept at this game. Its foreign ministry scrutinised the EU’s human rights record, and brushed away Brussels’ attempts to upbraid other countries.
‘Brussels’ should act as a beacon of freedom for member states. By making sure its directives do not affect independent journalism and by adopting an effective, impartial and indisputable rule of law mechanism aimed at preventing member states from violating those fundamental rights which, in Commissions 1st Vice-President Timmermans’ words, “are the essence of what the EU stands for”.
We will see…
*Balancing Act: ‘Press Freedom at risk as EU struggles to match action with values’ is a special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (www.cpj.org) .
