Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) An open letter on the topic of the award ceremony for the Sakharov Prize 2022 was addressed by Mep Sabrina Pignedoli to the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament. The initiative of Pignedoli was supported by 27 of her colleagues.
In the letter, it is noted that the award ceremony for the Sakharov Prize 2022 is approaching and as usual, the finalists will be invited to take part in the award ceremony for this important prize.
“Among this year’s finalists is Julian Assange. It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that finalists and winners find themselves in prison because of their activities: recall Navalny’s empty chair last year. In the case of the WikiLeaks founder, however, for the first time, the imprisonment occurs in Europe, in a country, Great Britain, which was already a member of the European Union and with which we have always had close cultural, economic, and political relations.” it’s written in the letter.
The document continues that the future of freedom of the press and the right of citizens to be informed is at stake in Assange’s case, as Nobel Prize laureates, UN agencies, and the Council of Europe have also pointed out.
“Numerous NGOs, the International Federation of journalists and Unions, and National journalists’ associations have underlined the risks that such a case poses for democratic transparency and the work of governments,” it said in the document.
The MEPs ask for authoritative support to make a request to the government of Great Britain to allow Julian Assange to attend the award ceremony in Strasbourg on 14 December 2022, to avoid another shameful empty chair.
“It would be very important for the European Parliament to have a united stand on this important matter, in the name of those rights of freedom of thought of which the Sakharov Prize itself is an expression,” it stated in the letter of the MEPs.
Undersigned
Sabrina Pignedoli MEP
Dominique Pradalié, President IFJ (International Federation of Journalists)
Özlem Demirel MEP
Martin Buschmann MEP
Rosa D’Amato MEP
Patrick Breyer MEP
Stelios Kouloglou MEP
Marc Botenga MEP
Martin Sonneborn MEP
Tatjana Ždanoka MEP
Dino Giarrusso MEP
Ignazio Corrao MEP
Clare Daly MEP
Mick Wallace MEP
Ana Miranda MEP
Ivan Vilibor Sinčić MEP
Fabio Massimo Castaldo MEP
Piernicola Pedicini MEP
Milan Uhrík MEP
Saskia Bricmont MEP
Francesca Donato MEP
Emmanouil Fragkos MEP
Carles Puigdemont MEP
Antoni Comín MEP
Clara Ponsatí MEP
Nicolaus Fest MEP
Tiziana Beghin MEP
Marc Tarabella MEP
