engleski

The right of persons belonging to national minorities to access the media in the digital age: is the Advisory Committee's monitoring work catching up on the digitally transformed reality?

The Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the core international treaty establishing minority rights in a legally binding way that came into being in 1998, recognizes in Article 9 that that persons belonging to a national minority shall not be discriminated against in their access to the media. It, furthermore, stipulates that persons belonging to national minorities shall be granted the possibility of creating and using their own radio and television, as well as printed media. Finally, it endows the state parties with responsibility to adopt adequate measures in order to facilitate access to the media for persons belonging to national minorities and in order to promote tolerance and permit cultural pluralism. Similarly, the Framework Convention stipulates in Article 6 that the state parties need to encourage a spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue and take effective measures to promote mutual respect and understanding and co-operation among all persons living on their territory, irrespective of those persons’ ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity, in particular in the media. The development of the online space and expansion of the digital technology was not known to legislators who prescribed those rights. Technological innovations around digitalisation have lead to numerous opportunities but also challenges for persons belonging to minorities. Whereas they led to proliferation of minority media and enhanced the access to it, they also increase the prevalence of hate speech on social media that is targeting individuals and groups of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. The Advisory Committee, the implementation body attached to the treaty, has been continuously scrutinizing the implementation of the right to access to media in numerous European countries. In Thematic commentary No. 3 the Advisory Committee held that “minority language print editions also have a considerable symbolic and ‘emblematic’ value for the community as a whole, as they confirm the existence of the language in the public sphere. In addition, the Advisory Committee has repeatedly observed that minority communities consider their minority language print media as an important means to preserve and develop their specific culture and language within mainstream society.” (para. 47). It also acknowledged that “the offer of minority language publications on the Internet is steadily increasing. Electronic media often play an important role in the circulation of information in minority languages. While not replacing the traditional print media, they must still be taken into account when support is granted to the production of media in minority languages. Importantly, there is a need for professional and financial support for the maintenance of websites and increased training of journalists working for minority language electronic media.” (ibid., para. 48). In the opinions issued in the course of the fourth and fifth monitoring cycles, the Advisory Committee had started to take into account that the digital, online and social media are jointly relevant for the right of persons belonging to national minorities to access the media. By doing so, this monitoring body has confirmed that the Framework Convention is being implemented as a living instrument. In this paper I would assess how the work of the Advisory Committee, has been contributing in the last two monitoring cycles to recognition and implementation of this particular minority right in a technologically drastically transformed reality. In assessing the jurisprudence of the Advisory Committee I would use the standards developed by the Tallinn Guidelines on National Minorities and the Media in the Digital Age.

Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, minority rights in the digital age, digital divide, technological advances and minority rights monitoring bodies

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