Brussels, 15/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Socialist Group of the European Parliament (S&D) has called on the European Commission, through the voice of Belgian MEP Véronique de Keyser, to fully play its role in providing technical support, coordination and expertise to support the Tunisian audiovisual sector, in application of its promises to support media freedom in that country.
A new structure, the HAICA (high authority of audiovisual communication) has just been created and one of its tasks, de Keyser says, will be to prepare reform of the statutes of current public media in order to have real public service media in line with international standards and with guarantees with regard to autonomy of management and finance in particular, as well as editorial independence. She says, however, that the legislative text adopted in 2011 on the press code is lagging behind and freedom of the press is not yet fully in place, while it is necessary to have a harmonised framework so that journalists in Tunisia can do their work more serenely. Also, she said, the draft constitution as it exists today is not sufficiently precise in constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression. She also trusts that independence of the justice system will be an accepted feature “very soon”. (FB/transl.jl)