By Damien Routisseau-Magrou

(Photo: The Economist) The European Parliament today rejected calls to condemn infringements to media freedoms in Italy by an extremely narrow margin: the joint resolution presented by GUE/NGL, ALDE, the Greens and the S&D failed by only three votes (338 to 335 ,13 abst.) Eight other resolutions were tabled and were all rejected, including the one submitted by ALDE which failed by a margin of 0 votes: the European Parliament rejects texts in case of a tie. (338/338/8abst). The resolutions tabled by the Social-Democrats (S&D), Greens and leftists (GUE/NGL) all stressed that significant problems exist with freedom of the media in Italy, while the Liberals‘ resolution called for an investigation into alleged violations of press freedom, and the European People’s Party (EPP) and Conservative (ECR) resolutions claimed no such violations existed at all. Between these resolutions a wide range of options was covered to respond to citizens’ concerns. What is particularly disappointing is that the Parliament rejected every one of the eight resolutions tabled, and by consequence took no stand at all. European Alternatives regrets this outcome It will be a blow to humiliated and intimidated journalists in Italy and will hand back a glimmer of hope to Mr. Berlusconi’s discredited government, who will hail it as proof of Italy’s free press. All studies done on the subject highlight Italy’s lack of media freedom: by disregarding such researched information, the EPP and their allies have spurned the very founding values of the European Union. The argument raised by the EPP during last week’s debate in Brussels was that it was not the European Parliament’s prerogative to look into “strictly national” matters of fundamental rights. We strongly reject this reasoning. Human Rights are at the core of European integration and figure highest among the three so-called ‘Copenhagen Criteria’ to assess new countries’ ability to join the Union. To pretend that the presence of press freedom abuses in a Member State is not the EU’s business undermines the EU’s efforts to promote freedom of expression in candidate countries such as in the Western Balkans and Turkey. Freedom of the press also features in Article 7 of the EU Treaty, and was introduced at the Nice summit following the Austrian far-right party FPÖ’s entry in government. What was decided then must be applied now, and sanctions envisioned in Article 7 should be applied in the case of Italy. A European Problem Through the campaign European Alternatives ran, citizens from throughout Europe appealed to the European Parliament to take a stand on the issue of media freedom in Italy. Spontaneously, street rallies have been organised all over Europe in support of the cause. We would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who joined the campaign, whether it be by signing our petition, turning up at one of the demonstrations or talking about the campaign to their friends. During the campaign, European Alternatives published a dossier on the state of media freedom and pluralism in Italy, concluding that ongoing press intimidation and interference in the appointment of state television personnel should represent a cause of concern for the European Union. The vote in the European Parliament happened on the day after Reporters without Borders (RSF) published their 2009 Press Freedom Index, where Italy ranked 49th in the world, falling by a further 7 places on last year and ranking last among EU25 countries. The following comments came with the report:

Il Cavaliere’s harassment of the media, increased meddling, mafia violence against journalists who expose its activity and a bill that that would drastically curb the media’s ability to publish official phone tap transcripts explain why Italy fell for the second year running.

Unfortunately, Italy is not the only country in the European Union with such problems. The Press Freedom Index and other research show significant concerns in other European countries such as France, Slovakia, the UK, Bulgaria, Romania and EU hopeful Croatia. In her remarks to the European Parliament last week, Information and Media Commissionner Viviane Reding showed the European Commission’s unwillingness to side with Europe’s citizens by refusing to open infringement proceedings against Italy under Article 7. We call on her to consider another practical solution in the hands of the Commission: to revive attempts at a media accumulation directive, limiting the market share that any company or person may hold in the TV, radio or print media. This issue comes under the jurisdiction of the Single Market and the parliamentary Right will not be able to, for this topic, pretend it is a strictly national matter. Today’s vote cannot be seen as the end of the fight for a European response to infringements of the freedom of press. Countless Europeans will not be content with today’s disappointing showdown, and we will press the struggle forward with them.