Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-000605/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Ana Miranda Paz (Verts/ALE)
Francisco Carrión, a Spanish journalist, was expelled from Western Sahara in February 2024 while covering the situation in this territory illegally occupied by Morocco. Carrión had travelled to Dakhla for reporting purposes and according to his account, he was detained, interrogated and eventually forced to board a flight back to Spain. Carrión stated that an officer told him his expulsion was due to what he had written about the King of Morocco. In addition, another Spanish journalist, José Carmona, was deported a week and a half earlier. Their expulsion reflects Morocco’s ongoing restrictions on press freedom in Western Sahara, where journalists, politicians and activists face censorship.
Taking these cases into account, along with Parliament’s resolution of 11 July 2023 on the protection of journalists around the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter:
- 1.What will the Commission do to ensure that journalists are protected while performing their duties?
- 2.What will the Commission do in the face of these breaches of freedom of expression?
Submitted: 10.2.2025