Petr Fiala, Prime Minister, Czech Republic
CC: Mikuláš Bek, Minister of Europe
CC: Charles Michel, President of the European Council
CC: Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
June 30, 2022
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Dear Prime Minister Fiala,
On behalf of eighteen journalists, media freedom, and human rights groups we take the opportunity of the upcoming Czech Republic’s presidency of the Council of the European Union to welcome your government’s commitment to freedom of the media and determination to advance the EU’s ability to address threats to journalism and media freedom.
The current Commission has prioritized media freedom as part of its Democracy Action Plan and has taken important initiatives in advancing the safety of journalists through the recommendations issued in September 2021, and in addressing the balance of power on the internet to preserve fundamental human rights and combat disinformation in the Digital Services Act.
In April the much-needed anti-Slapps Directive was launched and, left undiluted in its current form, can make a very significant impact on protecting journalists from being targeted by vexatious lawsuits designed to stifle public debate and prevent accountability.
And under your presidency the European Commission is due to publish the European Media Freedom Act providing a crucial opportunity to combat the threats posed to European democracy by the capture of media by political parties and governments that has become increasingly prevalent in parts of the European Union.
Media Capture as conducted by political forces can be broadly understood as the abuse of government powers to create a pliant media acting in the interests of the government. It can be divided into four key areas,
– the misuse and abuse of government funds – advertising, public subsidies or other public contracts – to boost media support for government and punish independent media
– the taking over of media regulators with politically aligned supporters that can abuse their authority to rule on media licensing and mergers in favour of pro-government media
– the manipulation of media ownership to create a bubble of government propaganda outfits – often dependent on government largess – and sidelining independent media to the edges of public debate
– the control of public media, often converted into flagrant propaganda arms.
The EMFA should address all of these areas by introducing Europe wide rules on
– Improving transparency of media ownership and funding and all financial relations between media and the government
– Ending the abuse of government funds to finance media allies and creating a hostile economic environment to independent media
– Improving the independence of media regulators, and
– Protecting public media from political interference
The Czech Presidency has an opportunity to advance the debate around the EMFA as it understands well the threat posed by media capture and the necessity for EU action.
In particular you have witnessed how public advertising and public contracts were abused by the previous Czech government to fund media close to and owned by the former Prime Minister. You have also witnessed how the appointments process for the governing bodies of the Czech TV were politicised by the previous government in an attempt to take control of the public broadcaster. And you have witnessed how media pluralism can suffer when mainstream media are taken over by oligarchs dependent on close relations with the government to protect their broader business interests.
You were elected to power on the promise of promoting media freedom, independence and pluralism and introducing reforms to end the ability of governments to abuse state funds to influence media coverage. We ask you to help replicate these actions with a strong endorsement of the European Media Freedom Act.
Kind regards,
International Press Institute (IPI)
Association of European Journalists (AEJ Belgium)
Baltic Centre for Media Excellence (BCME)
Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties)
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ)
Cultural Broadcasting Archive (cba), Vienna
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Finnish Foundation for Media and Development
Free Press Unlimited
Global Forum for Media Development
IFEX
Muwatin Media Network
OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)
Ossigeno.info
Public Media Alliance (PMA)
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
Society of Journalists, Warsaw
JOINT STATEMENT
The European Commission is currently finalising the draft proposal for a European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). We thank the European Commission for taking on this task and the ambition it has to deal with fundamental threats to Europe’s media landscape.
We take this opportunity, as a coalition of journalists, media freedom groups and human rights groups, to develop our statement of 9th May and to address issues around the European single market, media ownership and transparency of economic relations with the state, and how to support a vibrant, diverse and independent media sector.
We believe the following:
– Media regulation, as a principle, should be kept to the minimum, should be strictly necessary, proportionate and targeted to address specific threats to media freedom
– The current threats to media freedom and media pluralism combined with an unprecedented rise in disinformation, especially in certain member states amply shows that the European Commission is right to bring forward a Media Freedom Act
– The EMFA should establish common principles and minimum standards of transparency, regulatory independence and media pluralism particularly to address the threat posed by politically driven media capture.
– Media freedom crises in individual member states, left unchecked, threaten media freedoms across the EU.
– Countries with healthy levels of media pluralism and strong checks and balances against media capture will benefit from an EMFA that can contribute to building similar checks and balances in fellow member states.
– The EMFA should help ensure a vibrant, sustainable and economically independent media sector able to inform the public without depending on financial support tied to political agendas.
– Journalism is a public good and, where the market is no longer able to sustain quality journalism, the government has a role to intervene and ensure it can.
We believe the EMFA should address the following:
European Single Market:
– The free flow of information across the single market is essential for the efficient functioning of the market and for eliminating corruption. The growth in transnational media groups demonstrate the economic benefits of the single market to media and of the media to the single market. The growth in cross border collaborations on investigative journalism also demonstrate the necessity and demand for a Europe wide media approach.
– The EMFA can significantly boost the media economy as a whole, and cross-border media investments specifically by reducing barriers to investments in countries suffering from media capture.
– In states with significant levels of media capture, media outlets whose owners are part of the ruling party’s political circle receive preferential state funding and other economic advantages as well as favourable treatment from politicised regulatory bodies. These media are therefore granted a competitive advantage over independent media. The sum of market distortions in such cases creates a barrier to investment from potential market actors outside the government’s circle, including foreign media companies. The single market cannot function properly, let alone flourish, in such conditions.
– It is no coincidence that hostile economic environments have been created in Hungary and Poland to foreign owned media whose editorial lines are harder to bring under government control.
– Reducing these barriers and improving the free flow of information and investments across the single market will boost investments and profitability and support a vibrant independent media sector.
Transparency of media ownership and state funding
– Knowing who owns and controls the media is fundamental for democratic resilience. Unlike many types of business, media companies have the special power to shape public opinion. Transparency of media ownership and media funding is therefore a fundamental tool to ensure media plurality, accountability and independence.
– In captured media environments, the powers behind media use complex ownership structures, offshore shell companies and other tools to exploit weak ownership registers to conceal the ultimate owners.
– In captured media environments beneficial bank loans, government advertising and public contracts in other economic sectors where media owners hold investments, have all been used by governments to bribe, threaten and reward media owners in exchange for compliant media coverage.
– The EMFA must, primarily, improve transparency of media ownership and all relations between the state and media.
– Transparency will not only improve democratic accountability but will also boost media revenues by increasing the efficiency of the market and the confidence the public have in the media products.
Fair distribution of public funds to support media pluralism
– Public support for journalism, which is a public good, can play an important role in creating a viable and vibrant media sector, maintaining diversity, quality and independence.
– However, public funding comes with the risk of misuse, particularly where advertising becomes a mechanism for state aid to pro-government media
– Therefore any mechanisms in which public funds are channelled to the media – including publicly funded advertising, media subsidies and grants – must be protected by strong conflict-of-interest safeguards, conducted through arms-length, non-political decision-making bodies and subject to clear and transparent criteria which ensure funds are directed to media with the highest standards of journalism, transparency and independence.
– The EMFA can help ensure that both EU and national funds for media are distributed in a fully transparent and fair manner, benefitting especially local media, but also small and medium size (investigative) media, and start ups.
Media concentration and a media plurality test for mergers
– The EMFA should establish a mechanism for monitoring media pluralism and safeguards that limit media concentration.
– In particular there should be a media pluralism test based on the public interest, for media mergers
– It has been argued that media mergers have been necessary for media to survive in the face of competition from the internet platforms and moreover that such mergers are necessary to preserve media plurality.
– However it is also true that media concentration by ideologically driven owners in countries suffering from media capture is an immediate and pressing threat and that media concentration limits can be an essential tool for preserving plurality.
Viable and vibrant media economy
– The EMFA should ensure that journalists are being paid for their work and benefit from revenues made on the basis of content produced by them and/or the independent media they work for.
– The dominant part of advertisement and other revenues made on the basis of content produced by independent media is currently syphoned off by social media companies. The EMFA should draw lessons from experiences and experiments like the Australian News Media Bargaining Code of 2021 and other similar forms of collective bargaining agreement aimed at paying for content shared on their platforms and/or forms of taxation in order to ensure revenues flow back to independent journalism organisations and independent professional journalists
Lastly it should be noted that while this statement primarily concentrates on efforts to protect media from capture by political forces using the powers of government, we need to underline that there is a broader threat to media pluralism and independence from non-government forces in particular Big Tech, organised crime and potentially hostile states driving misinformation.
Signed:
International Press Institute (IPI)
Association of European Journalists (AEJ Belgium)
Baltic Centre for Media Excellence (BCME)
Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties)
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ)
Cultural Broadcasting Archive (cba), Vienna
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Finnish Foundation for Media and Development
Free Press Unlimited
Global Forum for Media Development
IFEX
Muwatin Media Network
OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)
Ossigeno.info
Public Media Alliance (PMA)
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
Society of Journalists, Warsaw