The European Parliament will take a position on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) at its plenary session next week. The rapporteur, Sabine Verheyen (EPP, German), had the opportunity to defend her text before the press on Tuesday 26 September (see EUROPE 13245/11).
However, the “media privilege”, deemed too similar to the exemption withdrawn from the Digital Services Act (DSA), failed to convince. Supported by DSA rapporteur Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Danish), Ms Verheyen defended the need to protect the media from platform rules laid down by “Elon Musk, Marc Zuckerberg or other American companies”.
Media privilege
Article 17 of the EMFA would oblige platforms to wait 24 hours before removing content from a recognised media outlet that they consider to be in breach of their terms of use. According to civil society organisations, however, this could complicate the fight against disinformation.
The rapporteur denied this. In particular, she pointed out that the criteria for this privilege would prevent propaganda media from accessing it. Thus, to be recognised, a media outlet should: - be subject to supervision by a national regulatory or self-regulatory authority; - have a transparent ownership structure; - be independent; - refrain from publishing content generated by artificial intelligence without prior human editorial control; - publish the contact details of the editorial manager.
She also gave assurances that this would not create “barriers to entry” for emerging media, while emphasising that the media would have means of recourse if they were not considered to be recognised, notably through the European Board for Media Services.
“It complements the DSA”
The MEP also argued that the EMFA was not intended to encroach on the DSA, which regulates content that is illegal or poses a systemic risk to democracy, but to complement it. The EMFA would be limited to media content deemed to be in breach of platforms’ “house rules”.
The DSA ensures that “the platforms are not functioning as megaphones” for propaganda (particularly Russian propaganda), disinformation and hate speech, while the EMFA ensures that they “are not closing down for independent media”, Ms Schaldemose summarised.
Source protection
While it is expected that Article 17 will be the subject of discussions with the Council of the EU, according to Ms Verheyen this will also be the case for the provisions on the independence of the public media and on mergers, as well as those on the protection of sources versus safeguarding national security (see EUROPE 13225/23, 13206/1).
Asked about the case of journalist Ariane Lavrilleux, who was taken into police custody in Paris for investigating French intelligence in Egypt, Ms Verheyen reiterated that journalists’ work and their sources must be protected... while maintaining that not everyone can be given a “blank cheque” just because they are a journalist. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)