Worrying Situations, There Are Several: Strong Rules Required

Michael Hedges May 5, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

Multi-state agreements come together only after a problem situation is widely accepted. Long arduous negotiations run through details, risks and compromises. With forbearance - and luck - an acceptable document is signed. If not, the problem only grows, possibly infecting others.

European Commission (EC) vice-president Vera Jourová has rejected action recently in two media-related disputes. When Poland’s Competition Authority rejected a planned shareholding transfer between publisher Agora SA and broadcaster Eurozet the EC declined to intervene. Following closely, a complaint lodged against a state agency holding media outlets in Hungary was also declined. The stated reasons were the same, too small. The EC rejected intervening because the grievances were outside their economic purview.

Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA) was established in 2018 as the legal owner of the media holdings of various individuals close to the ruling right-wing, nativist and xenophobic Fidesz political party of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban. About 500 publications and broadcast outlets were absorbed over the following several months. Prime Minister Orban was so excited about the project’s success that he named it a national strategic asset, thus freeing it from Competition Authority (GVH) or Media Council oversight.

“The current competition rules are designed to catch much bigger cases,” said Commissioner Jourová to Euronews (May 3). “In financial terms, KESMA's case in Hungary is too small: the value of the merger is too small for that. The competition rules are designed for bigger cases.” Commissioner Jourová is EU Vice President for Values and Transparency. That portfolio includes rule of law, countering disinformation and monitoring risks to media plurality.

The original complaint to the EC was brought in 2016 by former MEP Benedek Jávor, broadcaster Klubradio and Hungarian media policy think tank Mérték and amended in 2019. Last year Klubradio was denied its Budapest FM broadcasting license. “For me,” said Commissioner Jourová, “The situation in Hungary is the most worrying. I have said this many times in diplomatic and less diplomatic language. I still believe it is a sick democracy.”

Commissioner Jourová and Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton have set their sights on a European Media Freedom Act. Both have mentioned this, along with EC president Ursula von der Leyen, since the assassination (April 9) of Greek investigative reporter George Karaivaz. “The reality is that the toolbox available to the Commission to intervene in the area of media freedom is limited, especially as we see in some countries a growing and worrying politicisation of the media,” Commissioner Breton said to the European Parliament (April 19). “For the media, and perhaps even more so the public service media, must be at the service of all citizens and not a partisan fraction of them.”

Drafting new European legislation is no small task. The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) was built on the Television Without Frontiers Directive (1989). The AVMS Directive was first drafted in 2007 and came into force, with amendments, in 2018. It is possible for a European Media Freedom Act to take form through AVMS rules on independent regulators. "Our conviction is that we should take this step,” said Commissioner Jourová, quoted by euobserver (May 4). “This is an initiative planned for next year.”

Last Friday (April 30), the Russian Federation Foreign Ministry imposed travel bans on Commissioner Jourová, European Parliament President David Sassoli and others in response to EU sanctions on Russian officials. “I am a long term critic of what the Russian Federation is doing, specifically pro-Kremlin information sources in the Czech Republic and in other EU states,” said Commissioner Jourová to Czech public broadcaster Radiozurnal (May 3). “I guess they noticed my work in Russia.”

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in Hungary

• Hot Topics - European Commission

• Hot Topics - Audiovisual Media Services Directive