The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 100 countries, expressed its support today for the position taken by Peter Leuprecht, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, who has resigned over the lowering of human rights standards for admission of new member states.

IPI and other free press organisations have been pointing out for some time that the new members like Croatia and Slovakia have bad records on press freedom and that, for that reason alone, they were not qualified to join the club of European democracies. The press organisations have also argued that other new Council members such as Romania and Russia were not up to democratic press freedom standards when the joined.

Leuprecht, who has also headed the Council’s human rights division, has been the chief official to whom press freedom organisations have expressed their concerned over the council’s activities in the media field. They have complained that Council programs have not always been sensitive enough to problems concerning press freedom and that some secretariat initiatives involved legal approaches that could be misused by authoritarian governments.

IPI noted that Mr. Leuprecht always expressed himself as a loyal spokesman for the Council but that he has seemed to become progressively more attentive to the concerns brought to him by the free press organisations.

Johann P. Fritz, Director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, said: “We have been pressing the alarm button without seeming to get much response from inside the Council of Europe’s secretariat. Now, we see that the Council’s ultimate insider has also been worried about the directions being taken.”