Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The European Commission in Brussels welcomed the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council of Member States on the European Media Freedom Law, proposed by the Commission in September 2022.
These new rules will better protect editorial independence and media pluralism, ensure transparency and fairness and achieve better cooperation between media authorities through a new European Media Council. It includes unprecedented guarantees to enable journalists to perform their work freely and safely. This new set of rules will also ensure that media outlets – public and private – are able to operate more easily across borders in the EU internal market, without undue pressure and taking into account the digital transformation of the media space.
According to a statement issued by the European Commission, “In concrete terms, the European Media Freedom Law will ensure: the protection of editorial independence by requiring Member States to respect the effective editorial freedom of media service providers, while improving the protection of journalistic sources, including against the use of spyware.”
Ensure the independent functioning of public media, including by ensuring adequate, sustainable and predictable financial resources and promoting transparency in the appointment of the chair or members of the boards of public media;
Ensure transparency of media ownership by disclosing target information requirements (such as legal names, contact details and ownership);
Provide safeguards against unwarranted removal by very large internet platforms (defined under the Digital Services Act) of media content produced in accordance with professional standards but deemed inconsistent with the terms and conditions;
Providing the right to customize media display on devices and interfaces, such as connected TVs, allowing users to change default settings to reflect their own preferences;
Ensure that Member States provide an assessment of the impact of major media market concentrations on media pluralism and editorial independence through media pluralism tests;
Ensure a more transparent audience measurement methodology for media service providers and advertisers, to reduce the risk of inflated or biased audience data;
Establish requirements for allocating state advertising to media service providers and online platforms, to ensure transparency and non-discrimination.
A new independent European Council for Media Services will be established under European Media Freedom Law. The Council will consist of national media organizations or bodies and will be assisted by the Commission's secretariat. It will promote the effective and consistent application of the EU media law framework by, among other things, issuing Opinions on the impact of media market concentrations likely to affect the functioning of the internal market for media services, as well as supporting the Commission in preparing the Guidelines. On media regulatory issues. The Council will also coordinate measures relating to non-EU media that pose a risk to public security, and will organize a structured dialogue between very large online platforms, the media and civil society.
The political agreement reached is now subject to formal approval by the European Parliament and the Council. Once formally adopted and published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the Regulation will be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States after 15 months.
The Commission proposed a European media freedom law in September 2022, as part of the State of the Union package, after President von der Leyen announced it a year earlier in her 2021 SOTEU address. It builds on the Commission's rule of law reports and the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which provides for EU-level harmonization of national audiovisual media legislation.
The proposal was published with a recommendation on internal guarantees of editorial independence and transparency of ownership in the media sector, allowing to take into account the specificities of media regulation and self-regulation at EU level and in Member States.
The law also builds on the Business Regulatory Platform, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), as well as the new Code of Practice on Disinformation. It is part of the EU's efforts to promote democratic participation, tackle disinformation and support media freedom and pluralism, as set out in the European Democracy Action Plan.
This proposal complements the Commission's Recommendation on the Protection, Safety and Empowerment of Journalists and the Directive on the Protection of Journalists and Human Rights Defenders from Arbitrary Prosecutions (Anti-SLAPP Package). The Media Freedom Act also works alongside initiatives on the viability, resilience and digital transformation of the media sector adopted under the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan and the revised Copyright Rules. The proposal is based on broad stakeholder consultations, including public consultation.