Meeting in Brussels on Friday 28 November for an ‘Education, Youth, Culture and Sport’ (EYCS) Council, the ministers of the EU27 were unable to unanimously approve the draft conclusions on the importance of reliable information, aimed at strengthening a free, independent and sustainable media sector through the ‘European Democracy Shield’ recently presented by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13750/4). Hungary, as expected, blocked its adoption.
The remaining twenty-six countries supported the Presidency’s proposal and stressed the importance of having reliable information in the face of the mass of ‘fake news’ flooding online, and to invest in media literacy.
“Unfortunately, one Member State could not bring itself to support the right to media freedom, and so the EU Council’s conclusions became the Presidency’s conclusions. It is worrying that Hungary remains the only Member State to choose to distance itself on such fundamental democratic issues. This sends out a disturbing message, which we will have to work on in the future”, lamented Jakob Engel-Schmidt, the Danish Minister for Culture.
The Presidency conclusions mention the need to “protect the role of public media” in guaranteeing universal access to reliable information and to encourage, support and ensure that traditional media can continue to provide this type of information.
Hungary was also the only country to vote against the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) (see EUROPE 13676/27). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)