With the Member States’ deputy ambassadors to the EU (Coreper 1) due to vote on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) on Wednesday 21 June, a number of civil society organisations are fuming. In an open letter published on Monday 19 June, 60 associations criticise in particular the possibility given to Member States to use spyware against journalists in the event of a threat to national security.
The latest compromise text on the table stipulates that the ban on deploying spyware against journalists and their entourage “is without prejudice to the Member States’ responsibility for safeguarding national security”. It also extends the list of crimes for which the deployment of such software may be justified.
For the signatories, however, this turns some of the EMFA’s protections into “empty shells”, leaving the Member States a great deal of room for manoeuvre. The amendment is said to have been pushed in particular by France, which wants Member States to retain full competence to define derogations inherent in national security. Various Member States, including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Estonia, also publicly supported it during the debate on EMFA at the EU ‘Education, Youth, Culture and Sport’ Council (see EUROPE 13183/18).
In addition, the signatories point out that a ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU in 2020 states that the simple objective of preserving national security does not exempt Member States from complying with European legislation or the Rule of law.
Journalists’ rights organisations and associations are therefore calling on the EU Council to reconsider its position. In particular, they want the final text to contain more safeguards to ensure respect for fundamental rights, and for the possibility of using spyware against journalists to be strictly controlled. They suggest, for example, that recourse to this type of practice should be subject to prior authorisation by an independent judicial authority.
To see the open letter: https://aeur.eu/f/7ls (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)