FREEDOM OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS

Motion Text

That this House urges Her Majesty's Government, through the Council of Ministers, to seek to require the European Commission to restate the belief of the European Community in the principles of freedom of expression and the freedom of the Press, to analyse the effects on the Press of the commercial restrictions either already imposed or in the course of being imposed by European Directives, to identify whether the constraints being imputed in such a fashion amount to a serious infringement, by the European Community, of the principles of expression and freedom of the Press enshrined in the Treaty of Rome, to consider the cumulative effect of European Community legislation upon the viability of the Press in member states and examine, and publish findings indicating, levels of state subsidy leading to unfair competition between the Press industries of member states.