CJE leaves the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe because of the non-expulsion of Russia

On Octo­ber 21 the Alliance of Inde­pen­dent Press Coun­cils of Europe (AIPCE), dur­ing their gen­er­al meet­ing, con­sid­ered the com­plaint by the Com­mis­sion on Jour­nal­ism Ethics regard­ing the expul­sion from the alliance of the Russ­ian Pub­lic Col­lege on Press Com­plaints. How­ev­er, accord­ing to the results of secret bal­lot, the nec­es­sary num­ber of votes for the expul­sion was not col­lect­ed.  

As ear­ly as last April, the CJE sug­gest­ed that russia’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives should be expelled from the AIPCE because of fail­ing to act in regard to the many-year lies, manip­u­la­tions, and flar­ing up hate speech in Russ­ian media in rela­tion to Ukraine.   

The Russ­ian Col­lege claims they are an inde­pen­dent pub­lic insti­tu­tion although in real­i­ty they are a pro­pa­gan­da moutj­piece of the Krem­lin. In par­tic­u­lar, since the armed aggres­sion of Rus­sia against Ukraine start­ed, the Col­lege has not adopt­ed a sin­gle res­o­lu­tion or state­ment on Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion nar­ra­tives. Even more, since 2020, well-known Putin pro­pa­gan­dists Vladimir Pozn­er and Mar­gari­ta Simon­ian have been mem­bers of this Col­lege. 

In rela­tion with the above rea­sons, the Com­mis­sion on Jour­nal­ism Ethics announces the com­plete stop of its mem­ber­ship in the Alliance of Inde­pen­dent Press Coun­cils of Europe (AIPCE). Russia’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in this organ­i­sa­tion puts under doubt its capa­bil­i­ty to com­ply with the declared goals and con­tra­dicts the val­ues of eth­i­cal jour­nal­ism which are guid­ing us.  

After Ukraine has left the Alliance of Inde­pen­dent Press Coun­cils of Europe, its mem­bers are: Aus­tria, Bel­gium, Ger­many, Arme­nia, Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, Cyprus, Bul­gar­ia, Esto­nia, Fin­land, France, Geor­gia, Hun­gary, Koso­vo, Ire­land, Mon­tene­gro, Lux­em­burg, Moldo­va, The Nether­lands, North­ern Mace­do­nia, Nor­way, Ser­bia, Spain, Swe­den, Switzer­land, Turkey, Great Britain, and Rus­sia.