Media Independence, Journalist Protection In New Legislation

Michael Hedges September 17, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

Media freedom has broad support across the globe. Not everybody on our planet, literally and figuratively, agrees what that means. The crux of the term is that citizens should have the freedom to choose media suiting their needs and liking. hate speech and pornography generally excluded. The other side, obviously, is the freedom for media providers to supply their creations, getting paid for it generally understood. The post-modern age has made the calculus, well, calculus.

Last spring, on World Press Freedom Day (May 3), European Commission (EC) vice president Vera Jourova pitched an EU media freedom act, to inscribe protections for this “pillar of democracy” beyond simple economics. "There is nothing in our European rules recognising the special role of the media as one of the pillars of democracy,” she said, quoted by EUObserver (May 4). She nodded to deficiencies, thereof, in EU Member States Hungary, Poland and, increasingly, Slovenia. Part of this legislation should, she added, address protections for journalists. All of these problems have been widely noted and discussed for years.

Rough details of a Media Freedom Act were part of EC president Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech past this week (September 15). “Media houses are not like all other companies,” she said. “Their independence is the be-all and end-all. Therefore, in Europe, a law is needed that guarantees this independence.”

“Information is a public good,” she added. “We must protect those who create transparency: the journalists. That is why today we have put forward a recommendation to give journalists better protection.” She expects to present draft legislation next year.

Much of President von der Leyen’s address focused on stronger protections for journalists in light of recent murders in Malta, Slovakia, Greece and Belgium as well as extremist attacks on studios and offices. Media independence, firm legislation being much more tricky legally and politically, was given a broad brush with nods to “rule of law,” which all observers understood.

The European Parliament (EuroParl) (September 15), however, was much more explicit in a motion for a resolution on “media freedom and the rule of law” specifically aimed at Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) political party and its leaders. "This is very necessary,” said Belgian MEP Tom Vandenkendelaere, addressing both the EuroParl motion and president von der Leyen’s address. “The situation is only getting worse in Poland. The intolerance of the current government towards free media continues to increase, journalists are intimidated every day, the press is subject to a kind of tax on advertising, which ironically is supposed to fuel a campaign of solidarity to develop free media.”

The EuroParl motion, which specifically addressed a new media law in Poland to further the “repolonizing” of media, passed (September 16) by a wide margin. During the debate, EC vice president Jourova added that should the Polish media law, dubbed Lex TVN, be adopted the EC will assess Poland’s compliance with the law on freedom of establishment. “This resolution is unfair and unfair to Poland,” said Polish MEP (PiS) Jadwiga Wisniewska.

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