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EU commissioner urges European press code on religion

Thursday February 09th 2006, 12:38 pm
Filed under: Newspapers

Plans for a European press charter committing the media to ‘prudence’ when reporting on Islam and other religions, were unveiled yesterday. Franco Frattini, the European Union commissioner for justice, freedom and security, revealed the idea for a code of conduct in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. Frattini, a former Italian foreign minister, appealed to European media to agree to ’self-regulate’. The code of conduct, as envisaged by Frattini, would acknowledge the importance of respecting religious sensibilities but would not offer a ‘privileged’ status to any one faith. Frattini said he was keen to move ahead with a voluntary code of conduct, to be drawn up by European media outlets with the assistance of the commission. The code would not have the status of an EU legal instrument and would not be enforceable by Union institutions. The interview took place one day after the IFJ posted a press release on its website strongly criticising reports that the European Union may be preparing an ethical code of conduct for the media. ‘We have already made it clear to Brussels officials that this will be unacceptable to everyone in media and they have agreed to encourage a professional dialogue but not to start drawing up codes or guidelines. That is the responsibility of media professionals alone,’ said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. (The Daily Telegraph, IFJ,February 09, 2006)

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