Discussing freedom of expression with MEPs in the context of recent disinformation campaigns by foreign players, European Commission representatives were accused of “disguised censorship” on Thursday 18 June during a debate in the European Parliament plenary session.
On behalf of the Identity and Democracy Group, Belgian MEP Filip De Man used this expression, calling into question the independence of fact checkers whose work the European Union is making a call to support (see EUROPE 12503/1); Mr De Man also denounced an attack by the European institutions on freedom of expression.
This intervention echoed that of Jorge Buxadé Villalba (ECR, Spain), for whom the EU institutions have simply “attributed their own lack of credibility to external or internal disinformation campaigns”.
Shortly before, the Commission Vice-President responsible for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, had stressed that the EU would support fact-finders through the European Digital Media Observatory and would launch a call for expressions of interest by the end of June to fund research clusters in different countries to the tune of €9 million.
Informed citizens. “Our best defence against disinformation is free and pluralistic media, informed and active citizens and strong democratic institutions in which they can have confidence”, she said at the opening of the debate.
“It is not a matter of having a ministry that attests to what is true and what is not"” High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in response to the two MEPs’ interventions.
“We need citizens who can tell the difference between truth and falsehood”, he said.
Reacting to the issue of informing citizens, however, Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, Germany) criticised the Commission for “the 20% cuts” in the budgets allocated after 2020 to EU education and justice policies. “We should invest more in civil society, as part of the recovery plan. This is the only way to protect democracy”, he insisted. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)