madam president it is absolutely vital that our voters are well informed on current affairs
information encourages citizens interest in public matters and their participation
we as politicians need a level playing field if our various messages are to get a fair public hearing
unfortunately today the commercial media are increasingly choosing only to entertain our voters
as a result they have limited their coverage of current affairs
thus it falls to our public media to do more and more in the field of information and education
dangerously there are some parties and politicians who continue to try to gain control over the public media
this is happening in many member states italy hungary romania and france to name just a few
we must resist this trend
since nineteen eighty-nine the council of europe which has already been mentioned in our debate has played a magnificent role in setting standards for free and unbiased public media in europe
these council of europe standards must be enforced in all member states both in the former communist east and in western europe
we as a parliament should work more closely with our neighbours here in strasbourg on this issue
our member state governments are responsible for ensuring that public media retain their independence and their ability to provide unbiased information and we the european parliament should continue to monitor how well they fulfil this public duty
