Abstract
The Council of Europe has called on several intergovernmental organizations to develop guidelines clarifying press rights at peaceful assemblies. It is a critical time to do so because police across Europe have been detaining and arresting journalists without cause, and citizens have been physically assaulting journalists—all as they have tried to cover assemblies. The organizations have been holding meetings for the past year to debate what the guidelines should include. The general idea is that they will set a minimum baseline for press rights at assemblies, creating a threshold that national authorities must meet in their own regulations. I have been contributing to these efforts as an adviser, and this Article is an outgrowth of that work. First, it reviews existing European and American protections for the press at assemblies. Second, it offers recommendations about issues that should be addressed in the guidelines. This Article's scholarly value is to examine the procedural and substantive dimensions of press rights at assemblies, and its practical value is to advance and structure a conversation around the Council of Europe's efforts to create press-rights guidelines.
Recommended Citation
Peters, Jonathan
(2018)
"Seeking Clarity: European Press Rights at Peaceful Assemblies,"
Florida Journal of International Law: Vol. 30:
Iss.
3, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/fjil/vol30/iss3/1