By Martin Banks - 10th January 2012
My mandate has been intensive
Jerzy Buzek
Parliament's outgoing president Jerzy Buzek has called on the institution to help promote media freedom "both inside and outside the EU".
Speaking on Monday, the Polish MEP described press freedom as "crucially important".
"I am particularly aware of this as I am from a country where a democratic media was impossible for decades," he said.
Speaking at the Brussels press club, Buzek added, "It is not enough to legislate on this, but also to implement it both inside and outside the EU. This is our responsibility and parliament can do a lot on this issue."
The MEP, whose term in office as president ends next week, also appealed to the journalists to embrace the "potential" provided by developments in social media.
He said, "Saying 'no' to social media will be counter-productive. Citizens are, nowadays, as well informed as us politicians, much more so than five to 10 years ago.
"This creates an entirely new atmosphere and we all have to respond to this."
Buzek also outlined some of the main achievements of what he called an "unusual" term of office.
"During the last two and a half years we have lived through some very difficult times," he said.
"At the start we had the issue of the Lisbon treaty while at the end we have had the Greek financial crisis."
Buzek, a former Polish prime minister, also highlighted another "challenge" being the revelations of financial impropriety by some MEPs by the Sunday Times newspaper.
He said that since the "cash for laws" scandal was raised, transparency of MEPs' expenses had improved with the introduction of a new code of conduct.
"My mandate has been intensive and it has been an honour to lead parliament."
Buzek, who will be live on Facebook on Wednesday, said, "This is my third and final live chat on Facebook; I am expecting lots of tough questions."
Speaking at the same event, Thomas Friedrich, president of the press club, called on the EU to defend press freedom "not only in China and Russia, but in Europe as well".
He was also scathing of Europarl TV, the in-house television channel run by parliament.
He said, "What we need is an independent press and not institutionalised reporting such as that of Europarl TV."
Friedrich also called on Buzek and parliament's new president to "defend" the assembly's European prize for journalism which has been scrapped.
