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Briefing item
Written declaration on subtitling all public-service TV programmes to be adopted
Culture - 07-04-2008 - 09:46
EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering will announce the adoption of a written declaration on the subtitling of all public-service television programmes in the EU given that over half of all MEPs have signed the written declaration. The declaration Calls on the Commission to put forward a legislative proposal requiring public-service television broadcasters in the EU to subtitle all of their programmes.
MEPs consider subtitling of all public-service television programmes in the EU to be essential with a view to ensuring that all viewers, including deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, have full access to them; takes the view that this would also help with foreign-language learning.
The written declaration was put forward by Lidia Joanna GERINGER DE OEDENBERG (PES, PL)and currently 427 (out of 785) have signed it.
MEPs point out that partial or complete loss of hearing is a condition that affects more than 83 million people in the European Union and given the ageing of the European population, this problem will continue to grow.
The declaration points out that universal access to television in Europe and to the fact that public-service television has a public-service mission consisting of, among other things, informing and educating viewers,
Finally, MEP recall that today's technology enables television programmes (including live programmes) to be subtitled as they go out, one example of this being the BBC, which has undertaken to subtitle all of its programmes from April 2008.
Lidia Joanna GERINGER DE OEDENBERG (PES, PL)
Written declaration on subtitling of all public service television programme in the EU
