Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-08-Speech-4-020"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20091008.5.4-020"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, people may think that I will speak in Italian, and people might want to make this an Italian debate, but I am Dutch. I am a Dutch Member of this Parliament and I am very frustrated by the idea that we are talking here as if the issue were an internal Italian debate.
The point is not the way that things are going in Italy – the pressure on journalists, the self-censorship journalists are starting to apply in Italy. The point is that it is a disgrace for Europe. How are we going to tell new Member States, applicant Member States, that they have to have a plural media, that every voice has to be heard in their country, that there should be a debate between all colours and all political parties, if we are unwilling to tell Italy that they have to shape up, that it is wrong to push journalists to change their attitude, that it is wrong to have one person ruling both commercial television and public television.
Mr Verhofstadt has asked for this and I will also ask for it. Mrs Reding, you said Europe is doing its best, fundamental rights are fundamental, but not when it comes to a Member State that is already a Member State. That cannot be true. This is one of the Copenhagen criteria. Everybody has to stick to the Copenhagen criteria.
In order to ensure that this is not an Italian debate, I am also asking for a media concentration directive. The European Parliament has asked for this twice: when is the Commission going to deliver? This heated debate we are having is one which the PPE Group even tried to take off the agenda with the argument that it would not be European. This heated debate shows that something is going on. People are shouting, people are being emotional about it – which is good, because freedom of speech, a plural press, is the key of our democracy.
In Italy, 80% of the people get their daily information from television. If that television is not broadcasting all voices, then people do not get the chance to make their own decisions. That is fundamental to democracy.
We are all educated people. We all have to learn to deal with various truths and make our own truth out of that, and people in Italy have the right to do so. People in Bulgaria, people in the Netherlands, have a right to do so, and I stand up for that right. I might be Dutch, I might not be Italian, but I do care for citizens throughout the whole of Europe.
Trying to get this debate taken off this agenda, trying to say it is not our case, is something we should be ashamed of. The way things are going in Italy makes that country very vulnerable in its democracy. Let us get something going. Media concentration, please, Mrs Reding."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples