In a surprising move, the European Parliament deleted a post from its website and social media referring to a recent report by Reporters without Borders (RSF) indicating that Greece is the worst EU country regarding media freedom. Contacted by EURACTIV, the EU Parliament’s response was even more problematic.
Earlier this month, the RSF published its annual report on Europe’s media landscape, according to which Greece was the worst-ranked EU country in terms of press freedom.
The report caused turmoil in Athens, with the ruling New Democracy party (EPP) launching an attack against RSF, questioning its validity and some conservative lawmakers describing the organisation as “insignificant” and “leftist”.
Given its close collaboration with RFS on the matter, the European Parliament re-published this report on its website and Twitter.
A couple of days later, the post was suddenly withdrawn from social media.
EURACTIV contacted the office of EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who also comes from the EPP, and asked why the post was deleted.
Her office referred EURACTIV to the Parliament’s communication services. Asked if Metsola was aware of the incident, her office declined to provide an answer.
EURACTIV then contacted the Parliament’s communication services and particularly its spokesperson Jaume Duch Guillot.
“The online article on Reporters Without Borders’ world press freedom report was withdrawn from the website as it was not in line with the editorial guidelines for Parliament’s communication services. According to these guidelines, editorial products should always mention a clear link to Parliament’s activities and agenda, which was not the case here,” his office replied.
“Parliament attaches great importance to media freedom as one of the cornerstones of democracy. On World Press Freedom Day, it held a debate in the plenary with the Commission on how to tackle threats to journalists and strengthen press freedom and officially launched the second edition of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize in support of investigative journalism and freedom of the media,” his office added.
EU-funded lies
But in practice, his office lied, as the initial publication also referred to the EU Parliament’s activities in media freedom under the title “How the EP supports journalists”.
“The European Parliament has repeatedly spoken out in favour of freedom of the press and pluralism in the EU and beyond. In November 2021, Parliament adopted a resolution to strengthen media freedom and pluralism in the EU, calling for new rules to protect journalists. On 27 April 2022, the Commission proposed measures to improve the protection of journalists and human rights defenders against abusive litigation. It is also committed to presenting the European act on media freedom by autumn 2022”.
Still, it is not clear who ordered the deletion of the post. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
Metsola’s effort to protect the last strong EPP government in Europe can be partly understood. What cannot be understood and tolerated is the lies of an EU institution which gets paid by EU taxpayers’ money, who are suffering from soaring prices across the bloc.
The EU House is not owned by any political party. It is the last hope to have a more united Europe. And to build people’s consensus around the EU project, the truth must be spoken.
Last but not least, a piece of advice to her communication advisors. With such moves, they only achieve more visibility of a topic they are trying to bury.
Source: euractiv.com
