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How Europes Anti-Terrorism Strategies Threaten Journalism and Civil Liberties

Journalists and non-governmental groups are being targeted by European legislators in the fight against terrorism in what may turn out over the coming months to be one of the most serious challenges ever posed to press freedom and civil liberties by the European Union.

In recent weeks the European Commission has issued a draft recommendation to member States on a code of conduct for non-profit organisations, including trades unions and journalists groups, apparently to clamp down on financing of terrorism, but which many believe threatens the integrity and independence of groups like unions and those who run them.

At the same time, the Commission has issued a Communication to the European Parliament over factors that contribute to violent radicalisation and expressed specific fears over the role of journalism, broadcast media and the Internet "disseminating propaganda" and giving expression to "terrorist views and organisations."

In Britain, the Blair government, currently holding the European Union Presidency, has announced that "rules of the game are changing" and is proposing a confusing new law to ban anything that "glorifies" terrorism.

It is little wonder that on October 18th in Brussels, the European Federation of Journalists and a number of other civil liberty groups met in Brussels to launch the European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN), a group aiming to counter threats to civil liberties and democracy. Unless a collective response is organised, says Tony Bunyan, the Director of the London-based group Statewatch, "the face of liberty and democracy in Europe will be changed forever."

Is this scare-mongering? Unfortunately, it is not.

The European Union is beginning to display some of the worst excesses of the Cold War era and has already put in place policies of surveillance of all telecommunications and Internet data traffic, mandatory population registers, security files and fingerprinting of all European citizens, as well as controls on and restriction of movement.

In the coming months, citizens across Europe will find themselves being catalogued and profiled for inclusion in massive databanks to be used by security agencies who want to share information in an extensive counter terrorism operation that stretches across Europe and beyond to the shores of the United States.

The consequences of this are to heighten fears and anxiety within society at large, and not just about the dangers of terrorism.

Unscrupulous politicians are nourishing unease within society, particularly after the bombings in Madrid and London, to foment intolerance and racism, particularly through anti-Muslim feeling and Islamophobia. This has created a cocktail of discontent that has unsettled formerly liberal democracies such as those in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, France and many of the new member states of the European Union.

Many of these concerns were flagged in some detail in the report Journalism, Civil Liberties and the War on Terrorism, produced by Statewatch and the International Federation of Journalists earlier this year. The problem is that too little of the detail of changes now taking place is being reported at national level and there is almost no coverage of the consequences of international co-operation strategies on security.

But the latest initiatives from within the European Union should open up the debate about the dangers to democracy and they should set alarm bells ringing throughout the newsrooms of European media.

The draft recommendations to Member States on transparency and accountability of non-profit organisations which were issued in July this year are not the final word, but they need to be examined by unions and journalists groups, because implicit in the proposals is a plan to set a European standard, even a "European label" that non-profit groups will have to meet before they can get Community funding for their work. There is also a suggestion that lobbying in Brussels will be restricted only to groups that comply with a European Code of Conduct.

Such ideas fly in the face of traditions, such as those in many European countries where there is no compulsory registration or government monitoring of unions or journalists groups.

No-one is against sensible and democratic procedures and most of our institutions have long-established structures of accountability, transparency, and self-regulation. Not surprisingly, some trades unions and journalists associations are already reacting against these plans for a European control system.

The TCO trade union confederation in Sweden says the proposals amount to unacceptable violations of the organisations independence and would seriously damage a great deal of trade union development activities carried out in co-operation with trade union colleagues in developing countries.

For the International Federation of Journalists and many national journalists unions it could call into question solidarity work with unions and journalists groups in the Middle East and the Arab world.

Just as worrying is the Commission Communication on violent radicalisation issued in September which hints at action to restrain journalists who are reporting on terrorism issues. Contacts with people connected to fringe organisations with political objectives are an essential part of the architecture of investigative and professional journalism.

Reporters need to go to places, sometimes putting themselves at risk, and they need to talk to people who can speak with authority for dissident and opposition groups. Without access to these sources of information our stories will only ever be half-told.

A good example is the media coverage of the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland where journalists from both Protestant and Catholic communities met regularly with people who were unambiguously associated with terrorist groups. They did so in a climate of political tolerance for journalism. As a result reporters were able to maintain professional distance which in the end contributed much to creating public support for peace and reconciliation.

But today that notion of respect for the role of journalism is changing. When the al-Jazeera journalist Taysir Allouni was jailed for seven years in Madrid in October he has alleged to have "collaborated" with terrorists. However, examining the evidence, many journalists might argue that this reporter who interviewed Osama Bin Laden after the September 11 attacks was jailed for doing little more than his normal job.

Proposals from the European Commission to bring the role of media into its anti-terrorism strategies only reinforces the concerns of many in media that politicians want to manipulate and direct the process of journalism. These plans should worry everyone who wants to preserve editorial independence and the cardinal principle that media ethics are a matter for journalists alone.

Given these growing threats it is urgent that journalists unions at national and international level confront politicians with demands to defend press freedom and civil liberties. They should be told that politicians, whether in Brussels or elsewhere, would do well to keep their noses out of the newsroom.