Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-02-16-Speech-3-525-000"
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"en.20110216.17.3-525-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Council representatives, please allow me to begin by stating the obvious. Sometimes it is necessary to repeat the obvious: the free circulation of news and independent opinion is the most important safeguard of any democratic society.
This is the reason that brings us here today. The insistence with which the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, several Member States and an ample majority of the Members of this Parliament have voiced their concerns is justified by the fact that the most basic principles of our European project are at stake.
When this law was hastily passed by Mr Orbán’s Government in Hungary, we considered that there had not been sufficient reflection during its preparation and that the law should be amended to ensure its consistency with European regulations and with the essential spirit embodied in the treaties.
We are pleased and grateful to the Commissioner, who has stood here today and told us that the Hungarian Government is prepared to amend the law. However, the creation of an information monitoring authority, whose council would be politically controlled exclusively by members of the ruling party, runs the risk of exercising a biased, centralised political control that would inevitably lead to censorship and, even worse, self-censorship. So the question is, will this authority be reviewed?
We have shared with the Commission and with you, Commissioner, our concerns on the issue of information pluralism, the principle of proportionality and the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and information, enshrined in Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Hungarian Government’s answers accepting the amendment of this law must be supervised to ensure that the changes implemented are sufficiently far-reaching to hold back the threat posed by these laws to our fundamental rights and values. For instance, by reviewing the monitoring authority, as I said before.
We urge the Commission to continue with its investigations, particularly into matters affecting fundamental rights. May I also stress, Commissioner and Council representatives, that this is not a political issue, as some people would have us believe. What is at issue here is the defence of the values of our European Union and respect for its laws.
Have no doubt about it: this is our sole objective and our task here today."@en1
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