This week the EFJ and 44 other civil society organisations sent a letter to the new Council of Europe Secretary General, Thorbjoern Jagland, regarding the commitment made at the 1^st Council of Europe Conference of Ministers, Reykjavik on 28-29 May 2009 to review anti-terror laws for their impact on freedom of expression and information.

“We are writing to find out the status of this promised review of anti-terror measures and in particular how the Council of Europe plans to work with member states to ensure that the review takes place and produces meaningful outcomes that are genuinely protective of the rights enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights” says the letter, which was signed by 44 civil society and media organisations (see attached).

 Following pressure from press freedom groups to accept that the time was right to assess the impact of terror laws enacted since attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, Ministers of the human rights network of the Council of Europe called on their governments to review anti-terrorism laws.

 “The recommendation, which had sent a strong message, must now be implemented in a transparent way” said Aidan White, EFJ General Secretary. “European governments need to act now to repair the damage done to civil liberties by the rush to legislate over the threat of terrorism. “Without a clear commitment and concrete actions to review these laws, the declaration of European ministers on the impact of anti-terrorism legislation on free expression rights would be rendered worthless," added White. 

The issue will be on the agenda of the next meeting of the CDMC on 20-23 October, which can be found at:

http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/media/CDMC/CDMC(2009)OJ3Revprov_en.asp#TopOfPage

For more information, please contact the EFJ at +32 2 235 2202

The EFJ represents over  250,000 journalists in more than 30 countries of Europe