Euro Press Warning To EC President

A ‘hands off’ message will be issued to EC president Jacques Delors in March by representatives from the Press from all 12 EC countries.

A delegation from CAEJ, the European Publishers’ Association, will seek assurances on the following points:

* That the editorial and advertising content of the Press remains free from centralised EC restrictions

* That no authoritarian restrictions be placed on the news-gathering process or on the marketing and distribution of the Press * That Press ownership be left to a free and open market

* That EC employment conditions do not inhibit or make unviable the unique production requirements of daily newspapers

* That the Press should be fiscally independent of government, and its cover price freed from tax to ensure its widest availability to the public

* That the EC should join the North American and other world blocs and abandon tariff barriers against newsprint imports CAEJ: 071-822 2002