RECOMMENDATION 996 (1984)[1]
on Council of Europe work relating to the media
The Assembly,
1. Having noted the resolutions on culture and communications
technology, and on the distribution of video-cassettes
portraying violence and brutality, adopted by the European
Ministers responsible for Cultural Affairs in Berlin in May
1984 ;
2. Sharing the ministers' view that "technological innovation,
with all the opportunities and dangers it entails, is
producing fundamental changes in communication networks,
making communications a major vehicle of further economic and
cultural development and greater mutual understanding" ;
3. Aware also of "the need to preserve and develop local,
regional and national cultural identities at a time when
frontiers are being opened up and production systems are being
reorganised as a consequence of the introduction of new
technologies" ;
4. Recalling its Recommendation 963 (1983), on cultural and
educational means of reducing violence, and Recommendation 964
(1983), on a European award for non-violence, and welcoming
the fact that the ministers in Berlin were equally concerned
with media violence ;
5. Noting that the ministers for culture meeting within the
Council of the European Communities in Luxembourg in June 1984
placed very similar emphasis on the need for concerted
European action in the media field ;
6. Noting also the proposals made by the European Parliament
in its resolution on the market of violent and horrific
video-cassettes ;
7. In consequence therefore regretting all the more the
over-cautious response of the Committee of Ministers to
Recommendations 963 and 964, regarding the media,
8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers reconsider this
response in the light of the positions adopted in Berlin and
Luxembourg, and on the basis of closer co-ordination of the
thinking of the Steering Committee for the Mass Media and of
the Council for Cultural Co-operation ;
9. Supports the request of the ministers in Berlin for an
intensification of co-operation between Council of Europe
member states, and stresses in particular the need for action
relating to :
a. the production and distribution of European
programmes ;
b. copyright and other legal questions relating to the
media ;
c. the quality of programme content and measures to
regulate the distribution of video-cassettes portraying
violence and brutality likely to have a pernicious influence
on children and adolescents.
[1]. Assembly debate on 2 and 3 October 1984 (18th,
19th and 20th Sittings) (see Doc. 5288, report of the
Committee on Culture and Education).
Text adopted by the Assembly on 3 October 1984 (20th
Sitting.
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