Swedish parliament to host major PACE hearing on the state of media freedom in Europe

Strasbourg, 8 September 2011 – A major parliamentary hearing on the state of media freedom in Europe will take place on Monday 12 September at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm, attended by around 90 government officials, parliamentarians and leading media professionals.

The event is being organised jointly by the Sub-committee on the Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Swedish Parliament.

Following a welcome from Liselott Hagberg, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, there will be an opening address from Hanna Hellquist, State Secretary to Sweden’s Minister for International Development.

Other speakers include the OSCE’s Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg, the Executive Director of Article IX Agnès Callamard, the head of the European Federation of Journalists Arne König, and the media freedom representative of the Association of European Journalists William Horsley, a former senior BBC correspondent.

The results of the hearing will feed into a report being prepared by Mats Johansson (Sweden, EPP/CD), the PACE Culture Committee’s Standing Rapporteur on Media Freedom.

The hearing, which is open to the press, takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m in the former second Chamber of the Swedish Parliament building (entrance: Riksplan).

Source: Council of Europe