Ivan Nikotchev, Media Consultant for the Council of Europe, Directorate General of Human Rights, Media Division, Strasbourg

Media support by the Council of Europe

The Council of Europe (COE) was founded in 1949 and is the oldest institution of this kind in Europe. Currently it consists of 43 member states with some more knocking on the door. Bosnia-Herzegovina for example will soon become a full member of the COE [BiH  was officially accepted into the COE on April 24]. The COE doesn’t have to do anything with the European Union and shouldn’t be confounded with the European Council, the parliament of the EU. The mission of the COE is to foster democracy, the rule of law and human rights. One important field of activities for example is the European Court of Justice which judges cases concerning the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The COE sees itself as a school for democracy.

Regarding the topic of media, the first and very basic question we have to ask is: Do mass media play any role in spreading or preventing conflicts?

We all agree, that they do. How and to what extent however depends on the concrete situation, country, kind of conflict.

If we answer this first question with yes, then we have to ask: What could be done to help media play a positive role or prevent them from playing a negative role?

The COE focuses on three areas:

• Regulation: a precondition for the freedom of expression is a legislative framework according to democratic standards. These regulations provide the environment, in which professional, independent media can develop and function. The present European standards are stipulated in the Human Rights Convention (Article 10: freedom of expression) and in recommendations (on violence in media, hate speech, tolerance etc.). The COE works together with the governments to set standards in the media field of a country. The draft media laws in Serbia can serve as a recent example.

• Implementation: The best laws don’t help anything if they are not implemented. Therefore the COE assists governments in the implementation of media laws in line with European standards. This includes the raising of awareness of the people about their rights.

• Training: Neither good laws nor their implementation can lead to good, professional journalism without good, professional journalists. Therefore the COE engages itself in training activities for journalists.

source: Medienhilfe
published by: Vanda Mathis vma@medienhilfe.ch date of release on this site (DD/MM/YY): 26/4/2002

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