Hon. Pasqual Magarall i Mira
President
Generalitat de Catalunya
Plaça de Sant Jaume, 4 (Palau de la Generalitat)
08002 Barcelona, Spain
president@gencat.net

Hon. Ernest Benach
President
Parlament de Catalunya
Parc de la Ciutadella, s/n
08003 Barcelona, Spain

5 January 2006

Dear President,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the passing of a law by the Parliament of Catalonia that poses a clear threat to freedom of expression.

On 20 December the regional Parliament of Catalonia approved a law enabling its Broadcast Council to fine broadcast stations up to 300,000 euros or to shut them down for transmitting "untruthful information". The following day, the Council asked the Catalan government to revoke the local broadcast licences of Cope, the Spanish catholic church’s radio network, for "exceeding the limits of freedom of speech".

Cope, a conservative network that staunchly defends Spain’s territorial unity, has been vehemently critical of initiatives to give Catalonia a new, quasi-independent status. The nationalist parties which take part in the ruling Catalan coalition have called Cope "the network of hate" and have spearheaded the efforts to ban the network from the airwaves in Catalonia.

We respectfully remind you that the Council is not a court of justice, but a political body, controlled by the ruling majority in Catalonia’s parliament. Its new, far-reaching censorship powers have no equivalent in modern Western European democracies. We are deeply alarmed by the creation of a political organ such as this one being given powers to muzzle or obliterate critical voices. We note that not one defamation suit has been brought against Cope in the last decade, which clearly suggests its adherence to national legal standards.

We are seriously concerned that a non-judicial, politically-controlled system has been set up with the aim (directly stated by some of its proponents) to remove the critical opinions of Cope from the airwaves.

We respectfully remind you that the closure of Cope would constitute a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers."

We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that the Broadcasting Council’s new powers are removed and that in future the Parliament of Catalonia fully observes international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.