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EU seeks to muzzle press to avoid bad publicity
Irked by harsh news coverage of legislative perquisites, the European Parliament's leadership has quietly proposed tough restrictions to bar the photographing or filming of members when they are not involved in official duties at the institution's sprawling headquarters. Journalists who violate the regulations could be banned from the Parliament's public buildings for six months to two years, according to internal documents from the legislature's administrative bureau, which includes the Parliament's president, Josep Borrell Fontelles, and 14 other legislators who are vice presidents. The movement to rein in the press dates back to mid-February, after an unidentified German television station started filming members of the Parliament, according to an internal memo. However, earlier in February, the German weekly television magazine Stern filmed members after they had signed for daily allowances, which have drawn intense scrutiny as some legislators have left work immediately after jotting their signatures. and THIS is the EU that has the nerve to lecture the US on ethics? The corruption stinks all the way across the Atlantic. Hans Peter Martin, an Austrian member of the Parliament who has been a vociferous critic of its benefits and privileges, accompanied the Stern television crew, which insists that it followed existing rules by filming from a public corridor. The new internal rules would grant power to an obscure five-member committee within the Parliament, the Quaestors, more of that wonderful EU accountability and high moral stance to decide which areas of the complex are subject to a ban on photography and filming that can be established on a temporary basis. Europe deserves what it is choosing for itself. Pity. Posted by: anon 2005-03-17 |
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