The EU will protect the freedom of journalists, Slovakia is joining
The protection of journalists is essential for the protection of democracy, it emerged from the debate on the European Act on media freedom. All the participants in the discussion, which was organized the day before November 17, according to the spokeswoman of the Council for Media Services Lucie Michelčíková, by the European Commission together with the Council for Media Services.
The Act on media freedom will be submitted by the European Commission for the approval of the European Parliament, after its approval it will be binding for all member states with immediate effect.
The discussion is also ongoing regarding the new initiative of the European Union, which has the freedom and independence of the media as a legislative component of a functioning democracy.
“Media freedom is increasingly under threat and the European Union must protect the freedom of journalists,” stated the general director of RTVS Ľuboš Machaj.
Europe needs to protect journalists
All participants in the discussion agreed on the need for a legislative grasp of this issue with pan-European impact. Ľuboš Kukliš, the former chairman of the EPRA association, which covers regulatory bodies from more than 50 countries, interpreted the general opinion that the European regulation protects journalists and the media it needs.
How do you currently perceive Kukliš, for example, the lack of protection of journalists against physical attacks and intimidation, or the fact that it does not establish any specific rules for social media that can clearly distinguish information disseminated by serious media and those that only pretend to be media.
European Commissioner for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová considers the regulation to be a powerful legislative tool that has great potential to help regulate the media environment, resulting in free and independent functioning of the media.
“Sanctions are in place, but they must be enforceable and the independence of the regulator that imposes them must be guaranteed,” warned Beáta Balogová, editor-in-chief of the daily SME.
“In Slovakia, there is experience with foreign media owners, who are even more numerous than Slovak ones, and I cannot imagine that we should look for media in terms of plurality in any other way than at the transnational level,” noted the state secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Radoslav Kutaš, who also considers the proposal to establish a pan-European regulator to be beneficial.
The Media Freedom Act also deals with the issue of transparency of ownership of media financing, predictability of their financing, transparency of advertising mechanisms, protection of journalists from political and power interests, or special status of public service media.
Vladimír Šucha, head of the representation of the European Commission in Slovakia (ZEK), confirmed that Slovakia is on the side of the European Commission in the upcoming legislative process and we will do everything in our power to create a safe space for the media and journalists.
Act on the Protection of Media Plurality and Independence
The European Commission (EC) today adopted the European Media Freedom Act, which is a new set of rules to protect media plurality and independence in the European Union (EU). EC informs about it on its website.
Among other things, the proposed regulation contains guarantees against political interference in editorial decisions and against surveillance, emphasizes the independence and stable financing of public media, as well as the transparency of media ownership and the allocation of state advertising, and also lays down measures aimed at protecting the independence of editors and the disclosure of conflicts interests.
The act will deal with the new question of authorities and will create an independent European Council for Media Services consisting of national media services. The commission also adopted additional recommendations to support internal guarantees of editorial independence.
“In recent years, we have observed various forms of pressure on the media. It is high time to act. We must establish clear principles: no journalist should be secretly monitored in connection with his work, no public media should become an instrument of propaganda. That is why today, for the first time, we are proposing a joint guarantee for the protection of media freedom and plurality in the EU,” said Věra Jourová, vice president for values and transparency.
Guarantee of media operation without interference
“The EU is the largest democratic single market in the world. Media society plays a key role, but they face declining incomes, threats to media freedom and plurality, the emergence of very large online platforms and a disjointed tangle of different domestic rules. The European Media Freedom Act provides common guarantees at EU level to guarantee the plurality of opinions and the functioning of the media without interference, whether private or public“ said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
“The new European control objective to support the active substance of these media and follow the new rules for the area so that it is not affected,” he added.
The European Media Freedom Act should ensure that both public and private media can operate in the EU’s internal market with borders, without undue pressure and in the current digital transformation of the media space.
At the same time, the Commission proposes to establish a new independent European Council for Media Services composed of national media bodies. The Council will be an active and relevant policy regarding the EU financial framework for the media area and will assist in the preparation of utilization and related media matters. It will also be able to issue opinions on national measures and decisions that have an impact on media markets and broadcast on the media market.
The Council should also coordinate national regulatory measures regarding non-EU media that pose a risk to public security, in order to ensure that these media do not circumvent EU rules. The Committee will organize a structured structured inquiry between very large online platforms and the media sector to promote access to different media offers and monitor whether platforms support self-regulatory offers such as the EU Code of Practice against the spread of disinformation.
As part of the regular legislative procedure, the Commission’s draft regulation should now be discussed by the European Parliament and the Member States. Once approved, the proposal will be directly applicable throughout the European Union. The Commission will support discussions, in particular within the European News Media Forum, on the voluntary procedures of media companies linked to the accompanying recommendation.
Source: SITA