The European Parliament’s Committee on Culture (CULT) adopted, on Wednesday 1 March, an opinion on the protection of journalists and EU policy in this field with a series of compromise amendments, which EUROPE has obtained.
The adopted opinion places particular emphasis on the link between the free exercise of journalism and democracy, both in the EU and in third countries, and adds to the list of threats to the media market. In addition to disinformation, backlash against the media and violence against women journalists, the text emphasises the economic pressures. It deplores the existence of “media deserts” and to “freelance non-contract and precarious work”, including “to cover high-risk areas and conflict zones”.
Face with this situation, the CULT committee advocates, in particular, for a permanent fund “with a cross-border component” which would also involve “associated and partner countries outside the EU”.
In addition, MEPs propose to include the guarantee of press freedom in the EU’s partnership programmes with third countries. In parallel, they call on the European Commission to better monitor media freedom outside the EU and to use targeted sanctions, or even suspend agreements, in case of persistent and systematic violation of media freedom.
Finally, in the context of the war in Ukraine, they called on the EU to support “journalists fleeing censorship and state campaigns of propaganda in helping them to change territory, to continue operating from a safe place and to reinstall their independent media outside their country”.
To read the opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/5jt
And the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/5jw (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)