Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 22
By Anakhanum Hidayatova – Trend:
Debates on attacks against journalists and media freedom in Europe, the challenges and accountability of online media and journalism and the need to end cyberdiscrimination and online hate speech will be at the heart of the PACE winter plenary part-session to be held in Strasbourg Jan. 23-27, 2017, the PACE website said Dec. 22.
There have also been requests for an urgent debate on the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey and for a current affairs debate on the situation in Syria and its effects upon surrounding countries, according to the website.
Addressing the Assembly will be President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, and Johannes Hahn, European commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, will present his statement to Assembly members, and Ioannis Kasoulides, the Cypriot foreign minister, will be speaking in the context of the Cypriot Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Other highlights of the session will be the debates on the functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine, the situation in Lebanon and challenges for regional stability and European security, and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the PACE website said.
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