A3-0434/93

Resolution on confidentiality for journalists' sources and the right of civil servants to disclose information

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Staes on confidentiality for journalists' sources and the right of civil servants to speak out on certain subjects (B3-1544/90),

-having regard to the letter of 22 March 1984 from Mrs Simone Veil, chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, to the President of the European Parliament, setting out the reasons which prompted the Legal Affairs Committee not to draw up a report on this subject,

-having regard to Article 12 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states 'no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks',

-having regard to its resolutions of:

-15 February 1990 on media takeovers and mergers and

-16 September 1992 on media concentration and diversity of opinions,

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the opinion of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A3-0434/93),

1.Believes that the right of confidentiality for journalists' sources is an important factor in improving and increasing the supply of information to the public, and that this right in practice also increases the transparency of decision-making procedures, strengthening the democratic nature of Community institutions and government bodies in the Member States, and is inextricably linked to the freedom of information and the freedom of the press in the broadest sense, lending substance to the fundamental right to freedom of expression, as defined in Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

2.Believes that in democratic societies, as the Member States of the European Community consider themselves to be, the freedom of the press, in all its manifestations, is fundamental to the unhindered operation of a democratic system of government, and, within this more general framework, expresses its concern at the numerous attacks on journalists' professional secrecy, and the fact that these attacks are being facilitated by the absence of legislation or a code of ethics adopted by journalists' professional associations laying down the conditions for the respect of journalists' professional secrecy by the authorities together with the justifiable and at all events limited exceptions thereto;

3.Calls on the Member States which have not yet recognized the professional secrecy of journalists to enact legislation in the knowledge that they will thus be helping improve and broaden the provision of information to their citizens, perhaps drawing on the codes of practice and professional rules for journalists which already apply at national and international level;

4.Considers that the meagre protection afforded to the professional secrecy of journalists at Community level heightens the threat to diversity of opinion from the concentration of the media on a Community and in general European and international scale, on the significance of which it already issued grave warnings in its abovementioned resolutions of 15 February 1990 and 16 September 1992, and that there is no doubt that concentrations made necessary by commercial considerations are restricting or may restrict the right to freedom of expression, while the failure to respect journalists' professional secrecy is indirectly restricting the right to information;

5.Believes that the proposals for the adoption of a charter of fundamental rights and freedoms for the citizens of the European Community should consider the question of protecting the professional secrecy of journalists, in order to improve and increase the provision of information;

6.Hopes that in the meantime circumstances will allow the Court of Justice of the European Communities to produce case law on the application within the European Community of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and in particular Article 10 thereof, and that the conditions may thereby be created for an, albeit indirect, common approach to the question of protecting the freedom of the press and safeguarding journalists' professional secrecy;

7.Welcomes the Commission's efforts to reshape its policy with a view to improving public access to the information available to the Institutions, in accordance with the Declaration of the Maastricht European Council of 15 December 1991, which was incorporated in the Final Act of the Treaty on European Union, and the fact that in subsequent communications the Commission has laid special emphasis on improving public access to information despite the duty of confidentiality imposed on its own officials, thus establishing a principle which substantially helps safeguard journalists' professional secrecy;

8.Believes that outlining such a policy at Community level, while at the same time national governments are taking similar action, will create a precedent for the shaping of a political framework which case law can more easily transform, via the interpretation of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, into a legal system, so as to define, albeit partially, the concept of freedom of information and the restrictive derogations required in case of violations of other fundamental freedoms such as the right to privacy or on grounds of public interest;

9.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments of the Member States.