The EU will have a Media Freedom Act as of the third quarter of 2022. The text aims to “safeguard media freedom and pluralism in the European internal market”.
The project had been mentioned several times by Commissioner Thierry Breton (see EUROPE 12702/28), confirmed by the President of the European Commission herself (see EUROPE 12791/7), and then was made official by Vice-President Věra Jourová (see EUROPE 12792/28).
The European Commission has already been working on this for several months and on Tuesday 21 December opened a first call for consultations on the subject.
This Act, the institution explains, will aim to guarantee editorial independence and the independence of media management, to promote undistorted competition between media companies “by ensuring a transparent and fair allocation of public resources” and to ensure that the activities of media companies can be carried out “subject to consistent regulatory standards”.
“The initiative will only focus on those areas where EU action appears necessary for the proper functioning of the internal media market”, the European Commission adds.
At this stage, the European Commission is considering three scenarios, the design of which will still have to be “refined”, it says. The first would be to propose no changes to the current legislative framework and to continue to monitor developments in the EU27, including through the annual Rule of law reports.
The other two scenarios would result in the publication of a Recommendation to Member States in the case of one scenario, and a European legislative instrument in the case of the other.
The latter would establish “common principles for national scrutiny procedures of media market transactions and other restrictions to market entry and the operation of the media”, says the European Commission.
This call for contributions will remain open until 21 March. It will then be followed by a public consultation, which will be published in January 2022 and is also expected to last several weeks.
To consult the call: https://bit.ly/3eiO1Kk (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)