On Thursday 29 June, the European Parliament’s Internal Market Committee (IMCO) adopted its opinion on the ‘Media Freedom Act’ (EMFA) with 34 votes in favour, 4 against and no abstentions (see EUROPE 13152/16).
Platforms
The text, which was drafted by Geoffroy Didier (EPP, French), includes platforms to a greater extent in its scope. In particular, it would like Member States to take this into account in their obligations to allocate public advertising revenues fairly and transparently and in their assessments on mergers. “We urgently need to consider these actors as direct competitors to the more traditional media”, it insisted.
It also obliges them to cooperate with the future European Board for Media Services and to ensure that their moderation policy guarantees freedom of expression, information and media pluralism.
However, despite the rapporteur’s misgivings, the obligation for platforms to inform the media before suspending their content has been maintained, although the text sets out the conditions for benefiting from this obligation with greater clarity.
Relationship with other legislation and traditions
In addition, in line with Mr Didier’s other priorities, the text adopted in IMCO excludes the written press from the Board’s remit and insists on the right of users to access content “in their own language and related to their own cultural preferences”.
At the same time, it explains the relationship between the EMFA and other European legislation. It clarifies, for example, the procedure to be followed in the case of audiovisual propaganda content originating from a media outlet in a third country within the context of the “country of origin principle”, which was contained in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) (see EUROPE 13063/29).
Finally, the IMCO opinion seeks to strengthen the Board’s independence and the transparency requirements of media ownership.
In relation to social networks, the rapporteur also commented on the position of the Council of the EU, calling on the French government to “abandon its plans to be able to legally spy on journalists” (see EUROPE 13206/1).
The draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/63k
The compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/7t0 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)