Blogging from Davos - I meet Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe - Hoofdinhoud
Meeting T. Jagland in Davos
On Wednesday I promised to keep you updated on my meeting today in Davos with Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.
As I expected, it was a very fruitful meeting. We discussed the developments regarding media freedom in Hungary after last years’ intervention by the European Commission , the critical report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Hammarberg and the ruling by the Constitutional Court last December.
We agreed that Hungary needs to act quickly to reassure all those who have concerns, to show that it is serious about protecting freedom of expression and media pluralism.
Mr. Jagland confirmed to me that the Council of Europe is ready to play its role and to prepare a comprehensive opinion on the media legislation and its application in practice - if or when Hungary would request such an assessment.
But of course that would just be a first step. The most important thing would be that the authorities would commit to accept and implement any concrete recommendations that would be made by the Council of Europe, which has been setting standards for fundamental rights protection in Europe for over half a century!