On December 3rd, Mr. Ezechia Paolo Reale, Secretary General of the Siracusa International Institute, will be one of the experts invited to join the hearing in front of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and the Media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The hearing, which will take place in the session dedicated to freedom of the media, public trust and the right to know, will be attended also by Ms. Helen Darbishire, Director of Access Info Europe, Mr. Claudio Radaelli, Professor of Political Science at the European University Institute in Florence and Ms. Laura Harth, Coordinator of the Scientific Council of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law.
The speech of Mr. Reale is available here.
In October 2019, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe decided to discuss a draft resolution on the universal right to know by the end of 2020. This resolution should be adopted by the plenary session between May and July 2021.
The importance of the right to know has become increasingly discussed in recent years and few weeks ago the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the “impact of COVID-19 related measures on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights” in which the subject of the right to knowledge is also addressed.
The Siracusa International Institute has supported several activities on the right to know over the years. This right, which belongs to every citizen, can be defined as the right to be actively informed on all aspects related to the management of all public goods (throughout the whole political and decision-making process) in order to allow democratic participation in the public debate about these goods and to guarantee that the administrators of these public goods are accountable according to human rights standards and the rule of law.
The initiative is available in streaming at this link.
