21 October 2024
European Media Freedom Act and the Jigsaw of the “Parliamentarized” Italian RAI
Italian public media broadcaster RAI faces challenges in depoliticization amidst the European Media Freedom Act obligations. Its “parlamentarized” governance model is a risk for political capture in a politically loaded environment. Continue reading >>
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16 July 2024
Ensuring the Mission of Public Service Broadcasters
Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) are publicly organised and funded broadcasters, organised by each of the EU’s Member State with a great degree of discretion and under a unique legal framework. Politicised interventions and the decline of PSBs’ independence threaten their ability to adequately perform their role and offer citizens a high-quality public service which meets the public’s democratic and cultural needs. The politicisation of PSBs by national authorities, coupled with the increasing concerns about media freedom, shows that some type of regulatory intervention is necessary. Continue reading >>
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20 October 2023
Restoring Poland’s Media Freedom
Over the last ten years, PiS has not only systematically dismantled Poland’s rule of law, but also strategically corroded the country’s media freedom. It has successfully politicized Poland’s media regulators, abused public service media for propaganda purposes, captured private media outlets and supported friendly private media, and created regulatory, legal and political obstacles for private media which criticized it. In this blogpost, I will detail three core steps that must be taken to restore media freedom in Poland in conformity with European standards. In particular, I argue for the restoration of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), the constitutional media regulator, as an independent body; the dissolution of the „bonus” media regulator introduced by PiS, the National Media Council; and for reforming the status of Poland’s private media and the government’s approach to the media in general. Continue reading >>
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16 June 2023
The GDPR’s Journalistic Exemption and its Side Effects
On 25 May 2023, we mark the fifth anniversary of the General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR) full application in the European Union (EU). While the Regulation is primarily known for its impact on business, it also fostered significant changes to data processing by media outlets, which are often overlooked in discussions about data protection. This blog post analyzes what is commonly called the ”journalistic exemption” under Article 85 of the GDPR that requires Member States to regulate the extent to which GDPR applies to journalists and others writing in the public interest. Further, this contribution reflects on how exactly that journalistic exemption is implemented across the Member States, and considers the problematic consequences of the GDPR’s uneven application to the media sector, including instrumentalization of GDPR in the strategic litigation (SLAPPs) against journalists. Continue reading >>
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15 June 2023
Interaction Without Affection?
The EU's legislative activity in the area of media and platform regulation is currently unfolding at an unprecedented pace. The thematically broad EMFA builds in many places on recently adopted legal acts whose interpretation is still unclear. This leads to parallelisms and overlaps as well as unclear and convoluted references, which can only be briefly outlined here and should be clarified in the trilogue negotiations. Continue reading >>
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15 March 2023
Too Much for Others, too Little for Us
The draft of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) published last September appears to constitute, in part, an attempt to respond to the systematic erosion of media freedom in Hungary since 2010. The European Commission seems to be aware of how unsuccessful it has been in addressing the problem. Thus, even though the rule of law proceedings against Hungary found a serious violation of media freedom, the conditionality procedure and the Charter of Fundamental Rights eligibility criteria inquiry failed to address the issue. Against this backdrop, this blogpost will analyse the draft EMFA’s capacity to respond to the unique challenges posed by the Hungarian media freedom landscape. Continue reading >>16 February 2023
Watchdog Watching Too Closely
In December 2017, readers of the largest and maybe also the most esteemed Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, were surprised to find an article which, among others, showed excerpts of classified, red-labelled documents. Very little was publicly known about the workings of that special center, part of the military intelligence, situated in a faraway resort. More than five years later, on January 27th, 2023, the Helsinki District Court found both of the journalists guilty of criminal disclosure charges. Put simply, the court’s decision is that media may report abuses of power. However, an interest to attract readers only is not enough to justify the disclosure. Continue reading >>
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24 December 2022
Фрагментарне реагування на загрозу свободі 3МІ в ЄС
Як відомо, шляхи польського та угорського урядів розійшлися щодо відповідей на російсько-українську війну. Однак на внутрішньому рівні обидві країни продовжують покладатися на схожі структурні зміни в медіа-середовищі, які допомагають їм впливати на виборців і підривають чесність виборів. Реакція ЄС на кризу свободи та плюралізму 3MI в Угорщині та Польщі була більш стриманою та якісно відрізнялася від реакції на кризу суддівської незалежності або загрози академічним свободам та правам меншин. Continue reading >>
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24 December 2022
A fragmented response to media freedom at risk in the Union
The Polish and Hungarian governments have famously parted ways over responses to the Russo-Ukraine war. However, internally, both continue to rely on similar structural changes in the media environment that help them target voters and undermine elections fairness. The EU’s response to the media freedom and pluralism crisis in Hungary and Poland has been more restrained and also qualitatively different from its answer to the judicial independence crisis or threats to academic freedoms and minority rights. Continue reading >>
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25 November 2022
Protecting Media Content on Social Media Platforms
On 16 September 2022 the European Commission released a proposal for a Regulation establishing a common framework for media services in the internal market, also known as the European Media Freedom Act. The proposal includes safeguards against political interference in editorial decisions, and includes a series of provisions targeting online services and establishing additional obligations and regulatory powers in this field. Continue reading >>
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