The institutions of the European Union reached an agreement yesterday, after five hours of discussion, on the European law on media freedom, a new regulation that aims to protect media pluralism and editorial independence and improve transparency in institutional advertising.
The pact agreed, which will need the ratification of the Council and the Parliament, aims to better protect journalists in the exercise of their work, especially in their freedom to work without having to reveal their sources, in addition to improving the independence of the public media. "This law allows us to make a very important leap in the defense and strengthening of the rule of law, in the defense of press freedom, at a very important moment for the continent, an important step forward to protect our democracies" , defended the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, since Spain holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
The most controversial point of the law, and which has made the negotiations more complicated since the beginning, has been the question of including an exception to be able to spy on journalists or their sources if "national security" reasons were argued. A red line for the European Parliament, because they feared that if this clause was added, all kinds of justifications could be used that would prevent the exercise of their work, as argued by the journalists' organizations that had warned about the dangers that this would entail.
The MEPs in their position had defended that the use of spyware could only be a tool of "last resort", analyzed on a case-by-case basis, and never without a prior independent judicial authorization allowing it only if there are indications of "serious crimes" (such as terrorism or human trafficking). Finally, in one of those typical EU solutions, a general reference to "respect the responsibilities of the member states" was added instead.
The law will also oblige the administrations to make public in an annual report the budget allocated to institutional advertising and the amount for each medium and group. The agreement regulates that, to prevent the media from being "extremely dependent" on institutional advertising, the funds will be allocated through "open and non-discriminatory procedures", based on public criteria.
Also, the states will have to evaluate the purchase and merger operations of the media that may affect editorial pluralism or independence. Each country will also have to create a national database that includes the names of media owners, information that must be accessible to citizens and anyone who has a percentage of shares that has influence on editorial decisions.
