Today
the European Parliament ratified the Lisbon Treaty. It did so by a large
majority of its 785 members but 115 voted against and 160 failed to register a
vote at all.From the desk of Elaib Harvey on Fri, 2008-02-15 19:23
Yesterday I received a copy of an open letter from Aidan White, the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). And very odd it was. It talked about the idea of a new journalist registration system, with Mr White pointing out that such a thing already exists in the shape of the IFJ card.
I write on behalf of the International Federation of Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists concerning a current discussion within European Union circles over the issuing of a specific European Press Card.
You might like to know that there is already an accreditation in circulation which is recognised by the major organisations of journalists throughout the European Union – the International Press Card of the IFJ.
The IFJ International Press Card (IPC) is the world’s oldest and most reputable press accreditation and provides instant confirmation that the bearer is a working journalist. It is only issued to genuine journalists who are committed to ethical standards and solidarity between media professionals.
Despite his job Mr White is no radical, and often seems pretty tardy on issues
relating to press freedom, however here he is bang on. I immediately picked up
the phone to the IFJ and spoke to them.
Indeed this letter seems to be a shot across the bows of the Commission. There are discussions going on in the Commission, (but at this point I and nor do the IFJ know how high up they go) about the creation of an European Press Card.
The ramifications of this could be massive. It could mean that it would be the Commission which could decide which journalist were 'proper' journalists and which were not. I know personally of journalists who have been threatened and arrested on the say so of European officials. They are accused of publishing inaccuracies, they are told that 'what they write does not represent the interests of their newspapers'. I know of newspapers that have had their advertisers phoned by the Commission's legal team with suggestions about how the Commission is represented in the paper, and how it would be helpful if they were to have a quiet word with editorial team. I remember when Alessandro Buttice the lawyer who represents OLAF as its press spokesman sent out a 16 page document to the Brussels' press corps advising them of how they should report EU news.
Access to Commissioners and officials could be restricted to those on the Commission list. Today there is European Institutional press accreditation, but any journalist who is vouched for by an editor is accepted. This new idea has a strong suggestion that the Commission itself will do the vetting not the news organisation and must be opposed as vigorously as possible.
I cannot emphasise how serious this could be.
From the desk of Elaib Harvey on Wed, 2008-02-20 21:22
Today
the European Parliament ratified the Lisbon Treaty. It did so by a large
majority of its 785 members but 115 voted against and 160 failed to register a
vote at all.
As a demonstration against the Treaty some of the UKIP staff were dressed as chickens to point out the cowardice of the European Elite. They want to foist the Constitution upon the people, but they do not dare to ask the people whether they want it.
The Head of Security and a pack of security guards chased us around the building until there was a stalemate. He informed me that "costumes are against the rules of the Parliament". I demanded to see the rule where this was stated. He could not provide any proof of his claims.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage appeared and was interviewed by a freelance journalist. As that interview finished a woman appeared called Anne-Margrete Wachtmeister. She is the Head of the Audio Visual Unit in the Parliament which describes itself thus,
Audiovisual Unit, which provides services and products to the audiovisual media in order to facilitate its coverage of the EP
Wachtmeister to the journalist,
"You should not broadcast that interview".
"Why?" said the shocked hack.
"Because the film crew are employees of the Parliament and they should not
be used to film dissent".
This exchange was overheard by
Shirin Wheeler, the presenter of the BBC World "Record" program that covers
the Parliament. She threatened to block all further BBC coverage of the
Parliament in Brussels and Strasburg if this attitude was not corrected.
The Parliament backed down.
But the thought that the Parliament even considered this is scary. Remember that the European Commission are planning to vet journalists. The European Parliament is building a TV station over which they have editorial control.
Recently in the chamber Danny Cohn-Bendit (President of the Greens) has
described Eurosceptics as "mentally ill", the leader of the Socialist Group
Martin Schulz described Eurosceptics as followers of Adolf Hitler. Graham Watson
described Eurosceptics as both Communist and National Socialist in the same
sentence.
The President of Parliament has gifted himself
arbritary powers over the rules of procedure.
Does all this remind anybody of anything?
(The picture shows your correspondent relaxing before the confrontation)
_0 February Chicken Run in Strasbourg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw7XwexR2ec
all the best
kevin
20 February Chicken Run in Strasbourg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw7XwexR2ec