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Recommendation 1773 (2006)
The 2003 guidelines on the use of minority languages in the broadcast media and the Council of Europe standards: need to enhance co-operation and synergy with the OSCE
1. The Parliamentary Assembly considers
linguistic diversity to be a source of mutual enrichment which member
states should encourage and maintain. Minorities must enjoy full
and effective equality with the majority, including the right to
preserve and develop their distinct identities. Genuine integration
policies must respect differences and diversity.
2. The Assembly stresses that languages, which play a fundamental
role in society as a tool for building communities, are particularly
important for people belonging to minorities, since they are essential
in the exercise of their right to maintain and develop their identity
and culture as stipulated in the Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities (ETS No. 157), the European Charter for Regional
or Minority Languages (ETS No. 148) and other Council of Europe
instruments as well as in the 2003 guidelines on the use of minority
languages in the broadcast media developed under the auspices of
the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
High Commissioner on National Minorities.
3. The Assembly recalls that media can make a positive contribution
to democracy and the fight against intolerance, especially where
they foster public debate and a culture of understanding between
different ethnic and linguistic groups in society and avoid presenting
society in mono-cultural and mono-linguistic terms.
4. The Assembly notes moreover that languages play an important
role in access to information and that providing information in
minority languages not only has an obvious cultural dimension but
also guarantees that minorities actually have full and equal access
to information.
5. The Assembly deeply regrets that such access is sometimes
deliberately made difficult or denied to minorities.
6. In this context, the Assembly recalls that, in Recommendation 1623 (2003) on rights of national minorities, it “reiterates the
views […] that all European states should abolish restrictions on
the establishment and functioning of private media broadcasting
in minority languages. Such restrictions are contrary to Article 10
of the European Convention on Human Rights as developed by the case
law of the European Court of Human Rights”.
7. Moreover, the Assembly notes that the relevant Council of
Europe and OSCE instruments, which aim to guarantee that minorities
can use their own languages and that these languages are broadcast
by the media, are complementary.
8. The Assembly recognises the significant role of the OSCE High
Commissioner on National Minorities in conflict prevention and supports
his continuous efforts to identify and seek early resolution of
ethnic tensions.
9. In its Recommendation
1623 (2003) the Assembly stated that “the co-operation between the
Council of Europe’s bodies and other relevant European organisations
(including the European Union and the OSCE) […] should be stepped
up”, and, in Recommendation
1743 (2006), that it attaches “great importance to relations between
the Council of Europe and other institutions”.
10. The heads of state and government of the member states of
the Council of Europe, meeting at the 3rd Summit in Warsaw on 16
and 17 May 2005, stated that they wished to foster “European identity
and unity, based on shared fundamental values, respect for our common
heritage and cultural diversity”.
11. In the Warsaw Declaration they undertook to continue their
“work on national minorities, thus contributing to the development
of democratic stability”, while declaring that they were “resolved
to secure improved practical co-operation between the Council of
Europe and the OSCE and [welcomed] the prospect of enhanced synergy
opened up by the joint declaration endorsed at this Summit”.
12. The Assembly welcomes the Action Plan adopted at the Warsaw
Summit, in which attention is drawn to the decision taken at the
Strasbourg Summit “to step up co-operation in respect of the protection
of all persons belonging to national minorities”.
13. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
13.1. invite member states which have
not yet done so to sign and ratify, without reservations and restrictive
declarations, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
which are fundamental instruments for the protection of national
and linguistic minorities, as well as the European Convention on
Transfrontier Television (ETS No. 132), and that it increase its
efforts in this respect;
13.2. invite member states to ensure that people belonging
to national minorities or using regional or minority languages have
a balanced access to public broadcast media and an effective right
to establish and use private broadcast media, in accordance with
Article 11 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
Article 9 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities, the opinions of the Advisory Committee on the Framework
Convention and the reports of the Committee of Experts on the Charter,
Parliamentary Assembly recommendations and resolutions on specific
linguistic minorities and the 2003 guidelines on the use of minority
languages in the broadcast media;
13.3. in the framework of the monitoring of the implementation
of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, regularly take
into account the 2003 guidelines on the use of minority languages
in the broadcast media;
13.4. instruct the competent committee, when revising the European
Convention on Transfrontier Television, to amend Article 10 of this
convention in order to strengthen multilingual audiovisual works as
well as audiovisual works produced in regional or minority languages.
14. The Assembly considers that there is a potential for enhanced
co-operation and contacts between the Council of Europe and the
Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and
encourages further synergies including through practical projects
of common interest, in which civil society representatives could
be involved.