April 2021

April 2021

PHOTO OF THE MONTH St. Petersburg, 28 April 2021: a worker covers with paint a mural of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Dear friend,

Here’s our monthly recap for you.

Let’s start with a date: 12th of April. That’s the day when the Committee on Culture, Education, Science and Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe held the first reading of the draft resolution entitled “Media freedom, public trust and the right to knowledge” introduced by Sen. Roberto Rampi. An important step in our campaign for the recognition of the Right to Know.

The hearing followed a previous one, held on December 3 where prof. Claudio Radaelli, Ezechia Paolo Reale and Laura Harth were heard. At the April’s hearing took the floor Mr. Gianni Betto, media expert and former director of Centro d’Ascolto per l’Informazione Radiotelevisiva (Italy); Mrs. Antonella Agnoli (Italy), writer and library expert; Mark O’Neill (UK), professor and museums expert.

The second reading and adoption of the draft resolution is scheduled on Friday 21st May. The Report should then be adopted by the plenary of the Assembly in the June session.

On the 15th of April, the Open Dialogue Foundation, the Italian Federation for Human Rights, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Freedom Kazakhstan Foundation and the Global Committee for the Rule of Law held an online conference with the aim of analyzing the strengths and the weaknesses of the newly adopted EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. The roundtable, entitled “Targeted Sanctions: a Tool to Safeguard Human Rights” also depicted the other Magnitsky-type of legislations that are being implemented or are currently on the table in several national parliaments of the EU and overseas. The event, which featured the participation of members of EU parliaments, representatives of international organizations, opposition activists and human rights defenders, is available on the Open Dialogue Foundation’s YouTube channel.

In the next few days, we will definitely observe the Parliament of New Zealand might begin debating a motion on the genocide of the Uighurs in Xinjiang although, as The Guardian noted, in a speech on May 3, Kiwi Prime Minister Ardern said words that will actually suit China. Should the proposal be accepted by the Labor Party, the Kiwi Parliament would open a debate as it is already the case in Italy, Belgium, Lithuania and Germany.

That’s all for now, but before closing this newsletter I wish to invite you to sign and share our Appeal for the Right to Know in support of our resolution tabled at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

All the best

Asia Jane Leigh
Researcher

Leave a Reply