European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova expects resistance from some European Union members to the new regulations on media freedom that the European Commission will present on September 13, with which Brussels is trying to distance politicians from the media as much as possible.
"I assume that the path of that law through the legislative process will not be easy. The EC will present it on September 13. I expect that some members will have objections precisely because we are creating as much distance as possible between politics and the media. It is possible that some countries will not like that aspect. Some will not like the fact that the EU wants to regulate it at all," said Jourova in an interview with the Czech public service Radiožurnal.
Jourova emphasized that the law does not regulate the media themselves, but the environment in which they function and eliminates those administrative measures of the government that affect the freedom and independence of the media.
"This happens in various ways, either directly by reducing the funding of public services or by putting people loyal to the government in them. It happens through various tax maneuvers in the field of funding. There are also hidden methods that cause some media unpopular with politicians to have problem to survive. We have seen, for example, in Poland a bill on taxing some media, to which the media themselves reacted with black front pages," said Jourova.
The European Commissioner also warned against the practice of misuse of public money to ensure influence on the media, as well as the purchase of media, concentration and their monopolization.
"From year to year, the trend worsens, even in countries where the situation was not serious. For example, in Slovenia there were problems with the financing of a news agency. In a number of countries, the rhetoric of politicians towards the media worsens. As the atmosphere in society worsens, the media become something like a public enemy," said a European official.
Jourova cited Scandinavian countries and Germany as a positive example of media independence protection.
"It is interesting that when we gave recommendations to the members to use the money set aside for measures against the consequences of covid, the very countries where the media operate under solid protection also used European money to keep the media economically vital," said Jourova.
She expects the support of the European Parliament for the new law, which, according to her, is clearly based on the conviction that democracy needs the media, that the media should perform a control function in the democratic system, while they are now under increasing political and economic pressure.
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