Media : Next Step: Big Eurobrother? : Americans say Europe’s proposed journalism code would stifle freedom, especially in the East.

An age-old debate between Americans and Europeans over how best to ensure freedom of the press has flared into an outright battle for the hearts and minds of reformers in Eastern Europe and widened a growing gap between the Atlantic allies.

European governments miffed over stories they consider muckraking invasions of privacy, like exposes on the indiscreet rompings of British royals obtained through wiretaps, have responded by proposing a stiff code of ethics for the Continent’s journalists.

But Americans and professional media organizations say the restrictions proposed by the Council of Europe and expected to be enacted into law by the end of the year could replace Communist-era censorship with Big Eurobrother.

The controversial code of ethics that has grown out of Western Europe’s quest for union and uniformity purports to establish guidelines for when and where journalists can express opinions, as well as deeming newspapers and broadcast networks to be “socio-economic agencies” with limited rights.

Most disturbing, in the view of those who oppose any state regulation of the press, is the council’s proposal for a Euro-government panel to pass judgment on the media by rating each news organization and journalist on ill-defined standards of truthfulness and prevailing ethics.

While the regulations are unlikely to muzzle Fleet Street or clothe the buxom nudes that give offense to some readers of German tabloids, opponents believe the code runs the risk of encouraging fledgling democratic governments to view the media as political tools to be used as they consider appropriate.

U.S. human rights officials and media groups warn that countries with little experience of a free and feisty press are already exhibiting troubling signs of regression and confusion:

* The government-appointed head of Hungary’s broadcast system fired an editor last week after he refused to air a news report he felt was biased in favor of Prime Minister Jozsef Antall. Hungarians are preparing for elections in the spring, and thousands of free-press advocates have been vehemently protesting government efforts to influence the media.

* Romanian authorities have succeeded in pushing through legislation that greatly expands the definition of “state secrets” to which the media can be denied access. It now includes virtually any subject or document the government deems sensitive.

* In Slovakia, a reporter is facing court proceedings for publishing an accurate summary of a speech by Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar. The speech drew accusations of racism from Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal for comments Meciar made about Gypsies.

The moves to curb or intimidate journalists could likely be nipped in the bud if Western officials saw fit to point out to their Eastern counterparts that restricting the press runs the risk of endangering their democratic development.

Instead, the message being transmitted by Western European governments is that some state regulation is all right--a view their American allies see as an avenue to peril.

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Francis Ronse, a Belgian government official speaking on behalf of the 12-nation European Union, echoes the Council’s position that an unregulated press too often confuses freedom of speech with a license to slander. He says the governments of Western Europe believe journalists should be made more accountable for their reporting through a pan-European system of checks and guidelines, like the ethics code.

But professional associations, like the International Federation of Journalists, the International Press Institute and the U.S.-based Center for Foreign Journalists, are lining up to fight what they see as a frontal assault on press freedom.

Johann Fritz, director of the International Press Institute, accuses Western European governments of seeking to put shackles on journalists on an international level that they have been unable to force in their own countries.

Britain recently sought to toughen regulations on privacy and access following a spate of royal scandals. Professional journalists’ associations managed to scuttle the project immediately by labeling it an attempt at censorship and by creating a public fuss.

But Eastern European countries have no recent experience with self-regulation or even self-restraint.

Because the post-Communist era has seen a rush of stories exposing government corruption and abuse of office, some of which have been poorly documented, Eastern European readers and viewers might interpret calls for regulation of the press as justified measures to protect privacy or establish standards for accuracy or taste.

“In East European countries, where you don’t have any experience of what a free press is and the history is one of politicians using regulations to curb the media, even well-intended regulations can easily lead to catastrophe,” warned Fritz, who has joined other industry professionals in a campaign to see the Council’s proposed ethics code either watered down or rejected.

“The United States doesn’t believe the regulatory approach makes sense even in a mature democracy, but it is particularly dangerous in countries just emerging from state control,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck, who traveled to the Polish capital last week to convey America’s concerns about the regulatory trend during a media seminar held by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

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Observing that U.S. and European press traditions have always been different, Shattuck said Washington was “willing to let (Western European countries) go their own way on regulation, but it is particularly important not to import this practice to a region that has a history of state control.”

Foes of press regulation within the 52-nation CSCE say they are worried about the Council of Europe’s proposed ethics code because of its potential to frustrate the development of a free press, and because it illustrates an attitude in some Western European countries that the United States has a junior role to theirs in the building of democracy in Eastern Europe.

“Western Europe is starting to feel very much under pressure, and the Fortress Europe tendencies are very clear there,” said a senior official of the CSCE. “The French in particular feel under pressure. They are trying all kinds of ways to protect what they see as their way of life by keeping American TV programs off the air and combatting other perceived invasions of their culture.”

The proposed ethics code is to be debated at a Council of Europe hearing today in Strasbourg, France.

Rules to Write By

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law. . .abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” But the Council of Europe shows no such reticencein its proposed Resolution 1003. Some excerpts:

* News organizations must consider themselves as special socioeconomic agencies whose entrepreneurial objectives have to be limited by the conditions for providing access to a fundamental right.

* Controversial or sensational items must not be confused with subjects on which it is important to provide information.

* In society, situations of tension and conflict sometimes arise under the pressure of factors such as terrorism, discrimination against minorities, xenophobia or war. In such circumstances, the media have a moral obligation to defend democratic values. . . .To that end the media must play a major role in preventing tension.