The European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) introduces a new set of rules to promote media pluralism and independence across the EU, and amends the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. The aim is to prevent political interference in editorial decisions and ensure transparency of media ownership. The act seeks to protect journalists from having to disclose their sources and from the use of spyware against them. This news item shows the statement by Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, extracts from the debate and from the vote.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

vote

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

freedom of press and media (T)

VERHEYEN, Sabine (EPP, DE)

Delivery EE2024 (T)

European Media Freedom Act: statement by Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, extracts from the debate and from the vote

Title: European Media Freedom Act: statement by Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, extracts from the debate and from the vote (EbS) 

SOUNDBITE (English), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, We have done several things in this draft bill first. We want to have more transparency. That is important for the media sector. We want the media sector to be independent and the journalists as such are protected first in Article six, so that editorial independence is also guaranteed towards the publisher, always in relation to the liability schemes we have in the member States. But there must be an independent possibility to work independently for the for the journalists. We have protected them against also spyware attacks.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, What is important is that the owners of the shares, the owners and responsible persons of a media outlet are let down in a transparent way in a register so that everyone knows who is behind a special media outlet, a media service. There are several obligations laid down in the text. Which information must be there? Where are they seated? Who is behind? And I think that is important also to protect against undue influence from outside the European Union, to see who is behind, who is financing and the how are the structures behind.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, The new European Board for Media Services is the follow up institution to ERGAM (European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services). ERGA until now was a board that was set up to organise the work between also the cross-border work, between the media authorities of the Member States in the European Union. There are new tasks coming up now and that needs a new set up for the structure. What we intend to do is to keep it absolutely independent from Member States and independent from from governments and from also from the Commission, from all political influence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sabine VERHEYEN (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, The big online platforms have to inform before they block or delete content or an account of a media service provider who qualified as such with a platform. They have to inform them beforehand. They have 24 hours to react on this point, and after that the content can be blocked. But there are also dispute mechanisms that start to run with the national media authorities, but also with the European Board for Media Services.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vera JOUROVA, Vice-President of the European Commission, We want to put for the first time in EU law that states should not interfere in editorial decisions, that no journalist can be spied on for doing their work, that no public service media should become a propaganda channel of one party. We require transparency of media ownership, transparency and fairness in the allocation of state advertising. We ask the media themselves to take measures to protect editorial independence and disclose conflicts of interests.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vera JOUROVA, Vice-President of the European Commission, We also strengthen the European coordination of national media regulators with the European Board for Media Services. We are creating new mechanisms such as and mutual assistance, to ensure coordination and solidarity in dealing with serious threats such as Russian propaganda. The act includes new requirements for Member States should which should follow when it comes to national measures which affect the media and to assess media concentration. Finally, we propose more safeguards for media in the online environment.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vera JOUROVA, Vice-President of the European Commission, I also note the importance of the debate in the Parliament regarding how media content is moderated on very large online platforms. Let me emphasise that the Media Freedom Act is a piece of a broader puzzle. Let me mention the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the Copyright Directive, and of course also the Digital Services Act and the Code of Practice against disinformation. We believe that there is harmony, not cacophony, that all these rules and all these pieces of legislation work very well together.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, Opening of the voting session

Final vote: 448 in favour, 102 against, 75 abstained