The European Parliament’s Committee on Culture (CULT) discussed on Wednesday 26 April a draft report on the ‘European Media Freedom Act’ (EMFA) (see EUROPE 13151/26). Led by Sabine Verheyen (EPP, Germany), it supports the European Commission’s proposal, but has some reservations.
Ensuring consistency between legislation
The text underlines that “media law has been traditionally regulated at national level”. Therefore, the rapporteur calls for “maintaining the right balance between national and Union competences on media pluralism and independence, while ensuring the respect for cultural diversity, national rights and duties and single market objectives”.
Similarly, she recalls that the EMFA must remain consistent with “existing legal acts”, in particular the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the Amsterdam Protocol as regards the independence of public service media. For example, Ms Verheyen proposes that, in accordance with the AVMSD “country of origin” principle (see EUROPE 13063/29), a channel established in a third country should fall under the authority of the Member State whose retransmission satellites it uses.
In addition, she calls for the inclusion of “future-oriented measures” that take into account the changes in the sector in the digital age. In parallel, she intends to clarify “the relationship between media service providers and very large online platforms”. Ms Verheyen wants public authorities to be obliged to disclose the funding they allocate to platforms, not just to the media.
Finally, like all MEPs, and even some Member States (see EUROPE 13069/23), she wants to guarantee the “full independence” of the future European Board for Media Services from the Commission.
While some MEPs felt that Ms Verheyen’s draft report was a good basis to start the debate between the shadow rapporteurs, others, like Irena Joveva (Renew Europe, Slovenian), expressed their disappointment and denounced a “lack of ambition”.
Read the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/6km
Strengthening source protection
On the same day, Ramona Strugariu (Renew Europe, Romanian) presented her proposal for an opinion on EMFA to the Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE).
In particular, the rapporteur wants to strengthen Article 4(2) on editorial freedom of the media, over which LIBE has exclusive competence. For example, she believes that the ban on deploying spyware in the computer equipment of journalists and their relatives should also apply to their professional network. “Such safeguards should also apply to those individuals in non-traditional forms of employment, such as freelance journalists”, she added.
Furthermore, Ms Strugariu says that “disclosure of sources of information [should be] the absolute last resort to be taken in cases where there is an overriding public interest, and such measures should obviously be disposed by a court of law or a judge”.
While these amendments were supported by her colleagues, several of them warned about the exception foreseen by the Commission in case of risk to national security, the definition of which is left to the discretion of Member States and which can be used to limit the work of journalists.
As for editorial independence, on which LIBE also has competences, Ms Strugariu said that “media owners, public authorities or any other individual or entity should not demand to see print or any other type of content [in advance] nor interfere with individual editorial decisions”.
In turn, she made proposals to ensure the Board’s independence from the Commission and the Member States, including the possibility of acting on its own initiative.
Finally, she stressed the need to take into account the whole national media ecosystem when evaluating a media takeover and to ensure a fair allocation of state advertising revenues, including for the retransmission of emergency-related messages.
To read the draft opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/6kn (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)