Photo by Manson Yim on Unsplash The EU’s outgoing foreign affairs chief says there has been a “continuous erosion of the rights and freedoms” of people in Hong Kong. Josep Borrell was reacting to the release of the EU’s 2023 annual report on Hong Kong. The former Spanish MEP said the report “illustrates in great detail the continuous…
Day: June 19, 2024
Protection of Minors
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash The EU is stepping up its ongoing efforts to protect children from potentially harmful online porn sites. It is asking online platforms to spell out what measures they are taking about the dissemination of “illegal and harmful” content. The sites have until early next month to respond. Failure to do so could…
Will France Return to the Politics of Hate, Nationalism and Xenophobia?
Photo by Dawid Małecki on Unsplash The European Parliament elections with their low turn outs, unknown politicians, and use as a protest vote against incumbent governments have exploded into life with the decision of President Macron to dissolve the French Parliament, writes Denis MacShane. In effect he is holding a plebiscite asking the French people and indirectly the…
Restoring an Independent Media Sector in Ukraine
Photo by Kristina V on Unsplash The restoration of the press must be included in the programmes of economic and social restoration of Ukraine. That is a demand made by the organisation representing media in the war torn country. The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) recently held a joint round table at…
Europe’s Declining Influence in Africa
Photo by Thomas Bennie on Unsplash Europe is retreating from Africa in what seems likely to be the greatest shift of all in the 21st century’s new era of tectonic geo-political change, writes Giles Merritt. It is five hundred years since Henry the Navigator’s explorers set up Portuguese trading posts that eventually led to European colonialism. Africa was…