Media freedom at home and abroad - Main contents

I’m shortly off to Baku for the Internet Governance Forum. Azerbaijan is a country with serious issues of media freedom - where journalists regularly face arrest or imprisonment, and the suppression of very basic human rights. While I’m there I’ll be raising a number of concerns about how protection and promotion of human rights.

Within the EU, fortunately, most journalists don’t face the same issues. But this is a telling reminder of the importance of media freedom. And this is something we have to ensure here in the EU too - as recent cases in Hungary, Bulgaria, and now Greece show. Because openness is good for society, and a free media can build a transparent, strong democracy. Even if journalists bear a message that governments would rather not be hearing, you shouldn’t blame the messenger.

Here’s my recent address to the Association of European Journalists (who recently celebrated their 50th anniversary), about what we’re doing for media freedom in the EU.

And stand by for an update from Azerbaijan.