(2004/C 84 E/0805)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0562/03

by Juan Ojeda Sanz (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(27 February 2003)

Subject:   Arrest of journalists in Gibraltar

As the Commission is aware, on 20 January 2003 a group of journalists who were preparing to film the action being taken by the environmentalist group Greenpeace in protest against the oil tanker Vemamagna in Gibraltar were arrested.

Members of the Campo de Gibraltar Press Association have reported that the officers manning the Gibraltarian patrol boats behaved in a violent and arbitrary fashion and then proceeded to arrest some of the journalists present and to detain them in police cells for a nine-hour period, following which they were released without charge.

The above-mentioned Association deems such behaviour to constitute a direct attack on freedom of speech, on the right to report freely and on the right of the general public to be informed.

Could the Commission seek information from the Gibraltar authorities as to the reasons which prompted the officers of the Royal Gibraltar Police to arrest the journalists?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(27 March 2003)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its answer to written E-0201/03 by Mr Menéndez del Valle (1)

(1)  OJ C 78 E, 27.3.2004, p. 13.