European Parliament votes in favour of stronger press freedom rules

Concerns have been growing in the EU over a backsliding of standards protecting journalists.

Transcript

00:00 The European Parliament is calling for stronger rules to protect press freedom and journalists.

00:07 The so-called Media Freedom Act proposed last year by the European Commission aims to enforce

00:12 greater transparency of media funding, the protection of outlets from political pressure

00:17 and the defense of journalists from spyware like Pegasus.

00:21 MEPs say these steps are necessary to protect democracy in the EU, rejecting any attempts

00:28 by Member States to water down the measures.

00:33 Without media freedom, without media pluralism, without independence of public media and without

00:39 protecting journalists, there is no democracy worth the name. That is precisely why we are

00:44 making a point here and we are also intending to get media freedom and media pluralism on

00:49 board the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights framework. So that it makes sense that

00:55 there will be rule of law conditionality also for those countries who do not respect media

01:00 freedom and media pluralism.

01:02 The regression of media freedom in countries like Poland and Hungary over recent years

01:06 has worried journalists and NGOs across the continent. Many blame the EU for not taking

01:12 action soon enough to defend the sector. One Hungarian opposition MEP says that this Media

01:17 Freedom Act comes too late, but that it could potentially correct some of the damages witnessed

01:22 on the ground.

01:23 I believe that the European Media Freedom Act is a very long overdue but very essential

01:28 piece of legislation and it is very necessary to have measures such as proposed on the concentration

01:34 of media ownership or limitations on state funding to media. If these processes would

01:41 have been put in place a decade ago, then it wouldn't have happened that in a European

01:46 Member State such as Hungary, media can run with 90% only state funding.

01:53 NGOs and journalistic organizations have previously criticized the measures for not being ambitious

01:58 enough, warning that some Member States would like to water down the parts banning online

02:02 surveillance and the protection of journalistic sources. But MEPs insist that these should

02:07 remain strong. The Parliament will now enter negotiations with Member States in order to

02:11 find a common position on the measures before they can enter into force.

02:14 (whooshing)