Czechia

Committee of Ministers: Media-specific Provisions in New Resolutions on Minorities

IRIS 2006-7:1/39

Tarlach McGonagle

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

In the course of 2006, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers (CM) adopted a number of country-specific Resolutions in the context of the Second Monitoring Cycle of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM). The Resolutions focus on the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia and contain a number of provisions concerning the (audiovisual) media (for similar provisions in earlier country-specific Resolutions, see IRIS 2006-2: 4).

In respect of the Czech Republic, the CM recommends, inter alia, that the authorities take “additional awareness-raising measures targeting the media” to combat intolerant and hostile attitudes towards the Roma and other vulnerable persons and pay “more attention to the use of minority languages in the media”.

The CM recommends that the Italian authorities “address the remaining difficulties in the implementation of Law 482/99 on the protection of historical linguistic minorities, including through increasing the volume of minority language television and radio broadcasts […]”.

As regards Slovenia, the CM’s relevant recommendations invite the authorities to:

- “increase the assistance granted to cultural projects and other activities, including as regards access to media […]”;

- “look for ways to increase the level of state assistance granted to non-Slovenes from former Yugoslavia (SFRY) and to the German-speaking persons in their efforts to develop their identity through education, culture and the media”, and

- “encourage and support the media to play a more active role” in fostering “a sense of respect for diversity and multiculturalism among the public”.

The CM does not make any media-specific recommendations in respect of Estonia or the Slovak Republic.

The implementation of the FCNM by States Parties is monitored by the CM and the Advisory Committee on the FCNM. A system of periodic State reporting forms the basis of the monitoring process. The Opinions adopted by the Advisory Committee are, by their nature, much more detailed than the subsequent Resolutions adopted by the CM.