1. Recognises that governments have the primary responsibility for guaranteeing and protecting freedom of the press and media; points out that governments also have the primary responsibility for hampering freedom of the press and media and, in the worst cases, are increasingly resorting to legal pressures in order to restrict that freedom, e.g. through the abuse of anti-terrorism or anti-extremism legislation and laws on national security, treason or subversion; notes that a balance between national security issues and freedom of information needs to be struck in order to prevent abuses and guarantee the independence of the press and ...[+++]media; recognises that media empires owned by politicians are sometimes empowered to carry out misinformation campaigns; emphasises that it is essential that the press and the media can operate independently and free of pressure through political and financial means; is alarmed at the general downward trend in the grading of the press and media freedom environments in various countries both within and outside Europe, according to the latest annual Indexes and Analysis Reports (see list in the Annex at the end of report A7-0176/2013);

– having regard to the reports by NGOs on the media such as those by Reporters Without Borders (Press Freedom Indexes), Freedom House (Freedom of the Press reports), and the International Press Institute (Death Watch and Annual IPI World Press Freedom Review),

44. Considers that the EU should include press and media support components in its electoral assistance, for instance by fostering cooperation between electoral management bodies in third countries and the press, so as to improve the transparency and legitimacy of election processes and results;

B. whereas restrictions on freedom of expression have serious consequences, should be very limited, and can only be justified subject to narrow and strict conditions provided by laws which themselves are considered legitimate under international law; whereas freedom of expression is a fundamental right and is closely linked to press and media freedom and pluralism; whereas states that have signed up to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) are obliged to ensure that independent, free and pluralistic press and media are guaranteed;

[16] CZ, LT ( [http ...]

4. Urges the Belarus authorities to stop their harassment of independent newspapers, to put an end to the criminal prosecution of journalists and to fulfil its international commitments regarding freedom of the press and freedom of opinion and to allow competition by granting equal opportunities to an independent press and to the state-owned press alike;