- 23 As a matter of fact, a few months after the CPT became operational, some newspapers began carrying articles purportedly disclosing confidential material; and indeed they on occasion set out - sometimes in a distorted way -matters that should have remained confidential. Further, following one visit carried out by the CPT, a newspaper clearly pieced together information received from persons and organisations with which the visiting delegation had been in contact and purported to disclose the delegation's findings. After another visit, a newspaper published erroneous statements about what the delegation was supposed to have seen in a particular prison. In other cases, newspapers alleged that the national authorities of a particular country had publicised confidential statements made within the CPT. 80. Highly concerned by this trend, the CPT decided at its sixth meeting (7-9 November 1990) to attempt to tackle the problem of the media. It decided to adopt a three-pronged policy: to officially channel to the media all information not covered by the rule of confidentiality; to reinforce its practices and procedural rules on the subject of confidentiality; to react immediately to statements in the media distorting the CPT's activities. 81. As regards the first of these policy lines, the CPT decided the following: i) a press release shall be issued at the end of each visit - be it periodic or ad hoc - indicating the name of the country visited, the dates of the visit, the composition of the delegation and the places visited; ii) the CPT's Bureau shall maintain appropriate informal contacts with representatives of the media on a regular basis, while strictly respecting the rule of confidentiality. It should also be mentioned that the press release issued shortly after the countries to receive periodic visits in a given year have been chosen (cf. paragraph 27) offers the additional advantage of avoiding media speculation about the countries chosen. 82. As for the second policy line, the CPT decided that: i) visiting delegations should avoid contact with the media during the course of a visit; ii) individual Committee members may give interviews to representatives of the media, but a) the interviews should not disclose any confidential information, b) they should be given on an "on the record", attributable basis, and c) a copy of each interview should be forwarded to the CPT's Secretariat; iii) if there are serious grounds for believing that a Committee member has violated the rule of confidentiality, the Committee may, after the member concerned has had an opportunity to state his views, decide by a majority of two-thirds of its members to issue an admonition to that member; in case of a new breach of confidentiality by the same Committee member, the CPT may inform the Committee of Ministers of the matter, under Rule 47 of its Rules of Procedure; if a Committee member to whom an admonition has been addressed is a member of the Bureau, he shall resign from his position as President or Vice-President;

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