A look back at Brussels’ announcement of the preparation of new legislation on media freedom in Europe. A text that comes as several European countries are asking questions about their media.
Vera Jourova, the Vice-President of the Commission, herself summarized the purpose of this future law on the freedom of the media, known as Media Freedom Actsaying that what constitutes a pillar of democracy could not crack due to pressure from governments or private groups.
First, there are attacks on pluralism in public services. It suffices to place there leaders entirely devoted to the power in place who themselves are gradually getting rid of critical journalists. One thinks of Hungary in particular where the media functioning is ” perverted » and where laws can « eliminate dissenting voicess,” according to Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur for freedom of opinion.
What about impartiality as elections approach?
With the approach of the elections in the spring, the impartiality of the public media cannot therefore be guaranteed: these media seem to be relaying the government, while those close to Viktor Orban have gradually bought out private media to change their line. editorial in a way favorable to their opinions, or to their interests if they benefit from public contracts.
We could also cite the case of Poland, which passed a law in December that can lead to a forced change in the ownership of media companies when the shareholder does not come from the European Union. Even if President Andrej Duda has vetoed it for the time being, it is a maneuver invented by the PiS, the ruling party, to get rid of the independence of the TVN24 channel, owned by the American group Discovery.
Embarrassing topics dismissed
There are of course other examples in Europe, and France is also to be watched closely. First, there is the fate of the public service. After his election, Emmanuel Macron had reduced the resources of France Télévisions by 160 million euros and it is in investigative broadcasts Correspondent and Further investigation that management had started looking for these savings. Even today, it is not known whether the public service will continue to benefit from a dedicated license fee and whether it will, like the BBC, have to suffer from inflation.
Then, as evidenced by a senatorial commission of inquiry, many media owners live off public commissions and embarrassing subjects can be discarded. This is what has just been revealed in a book on the The Élysée (and the oligarchs) against the info Jean-Baptiste Rivoire who tells how a journalist was refused by the show Day-to-day by Yann Barthès a substantiated investigation into arms sales from France to Saudi Arabia even though the shareholder of this chain, the Bouygues group, is doing business in this country.