12
Mar
2024
Watch
European Media Freedom Act (debate)
Mr President! A European media freedom law must meet some expectations: consistently defend media freedom, whether online or offline, protect journalists and enable media diversity. This has only been achieved to a limited extent. When it comes to measures to ensure the independence of public service media, the text falls short of the Commission proposal. While there has been progress in protecting journalists, there are still too many loopholes that could put an end to this progress. Journalists should not be spied on or arrested just for doing their job. In the end, online platforms from the USA or even China can still decide according to their own rules which content we are allowed to see and which are not professionally created by recognized media providers. I think that's absurd. We also disregard our own rules. We rightly demand the independence and independence of the national supervisory authorities from the Member States in order to establish, at the same time as the European Media Freedom Act, the newly created body of national media supervisory authorities directly in the Commission, which then also determines the staff. We are thus opening the door wide to establishing the Commission as a European media supervisory authority, a task which it simply does not have and which contradicts all previous rules, because the Commission is neither independent nor independent of the state. All in all: Yes, there is progress; In my view, however, the text cannot really meet the high standards that we should all place on media freedom and pluralism as a prerequisite for the functioning of our democracy.