CoE Media + Internet - Information Society Heads Grundmann +Gylfadottir to EF on Journalists +Terror

*Strasbourg/CoE/Angelo Marcopolo/- Just after Leading Topical PanEuropean Debates particularly on Digital Media Internet Actors' Rights and Responsibilities, as well as Regulation or Self-Regulation issues, concerningon Medias' role when facing Terrorism, CoE's Media and Internet Director, Silvia Grundmann from Germany, as well as the President of CoE's, 47 Member States-strong, Committee on Media and Information Society, Elfa Gylfadottir, from Iceland, speaking to "Eurofora", Highlighted some of the Key Principles to observe during nowadays Fast-Developing relevant Events :

- First of all, "Press' Freedom was, and still is, always Under Attack !", stressed from the outset Grundmann, with a smile...

Inter alia, she was pointing, obviously, also to CoE's latest relevant Publication : an Official TextBook, prefaced by the PanEuropean Organisation for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law's Secretary General, Thornbjorn Jagland, (former Prime Minister of Norway, and Nobel Peace Prize Committee Head), which Warned about recent Findings Alerting on Journalists' growing "Self-Censorship"...

The main Cause was, according to that, most Recent CoE's Book, published just on March 2017, in Strasbourg, an evolving, multifacet "Pressure" on "Journalists", who, according to CoE's most recent "Definition", (updated by a select Committee of competent and experienced Experts, including also the new Secretary General of the "European Federation of Journalists" - "EFJ", HeadQuartered in Brussels, Ricardo Gutierrez: Comp. Interview to "Eurofora" at: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/iachrcoebookandefjsgonjournalismdefinition.html), are "Persons who are Regularly Engaged in the Collection and Disseminaion of Informations, destinated to the Public, for "Journalistic" (i.e. Public Service) purpose".

 A Definition, already Faithfull to ECHR's well-established Case-Law on the only relevant Article on Human Rights: Number 10, as well as on a CoE's Highest Political body : that of its Committee of Ministers, Legal Recommendation, taken already as early as since 2000, as the 2017 CoE Book's Authors remind Nowadays. But, also well corresponding to a Pioneer Decision, explicitly taken by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, since...more than 32 Years: from November 1985 ! (See: ....).

- However, CoE's Media and Internet Director, Today expessed her Optimist and Voluntarist Belief, in Reply to an "Eurofora" Question, that "a Right Balance", between Press Freedom (indispensable for any Democratic Society), and Security, in Nowadays' Context, could and should prevail:

- In this regard, it's Interesting to See, f.ex., what will exactly happen with a forthcoming Draft Law, due to be Debated and Adopted "during this Summer" 2017, by Germany's Bundestag, she observed, (while it's also well known that new President Macron's French Government, also currently prepares a relevant Legislation, almost at the Same Time).

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+ Meanwile, however, what has the Highest Ambition to become, perhaps, the World's Best Legal Status for On-Line Publishers, particularly from the point of view of Freedom of Expression, sensitive Data Protection, Defense against Cyber-Crime and/or abuse, is Still Developing in Iceland, as native Elfa Gylfadottir, President of CoE's PanEuropean Committee on Media and Information Society,  told "Eurofora" :
 

- Gylfadottir, (who has also served as the competent Head of Iceland's relevant "Steering" Commission for years), explained to "Eurofora", that, in fact, it's not only 1 or 2, but, on the contrary, a lot of Many and Various, related Legal Changes, Modifications, Adaptments, etc, which have to be considered and adequately decided, from several points of view, before good Final Decisions.

- Expected "possibly during Next Year" (2018), such Legal Modifications, on that Highly Topical, but also Sensitive issue, inevitably have also various Political impacts, and, at least partly depend from the overall Governmental policies.

At any case, one thing goes for sure :

- We want to Help f.ex. Human Rights' NGOs, "Whistle-Blowers", Investigative Journalists, really Independent Medias keeping a Critical Eye on Power, etc, but Not at all ...Porn Editors, shady Commercials, Tax-Evading outlets, or Terrorist cover-ups, etc., she pointed out.

=> For such purposes, we all need some Good and Crystal-clear Justifications and Definitions, CoE's Experienced, "Media and Information Society" PanEuropean Committee's Head, told "Eurofora", (Comp. f.ex.Supra).