New laws to secure media freedom?
Can whistleblowing protection and AVMS directive contribute to media freedom in the EU?
Expert exchange with the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom, ECPMF.
Meeting is hosted and chaired by Martina Michels, MEP and Cornelia Ernst, MEP
Venue: Committee of the Regions (CoR), Rue Belliard 99-101 B – 1040 Brussels, meeting room: JDE 70
Languages: EN, DE, IT, HU
8:30 – 9:30 admission, main building of Committee of the Regions (CoR)
Coffee at 9:00 (On the left hand side in the entrance hall you will find us at the large lit reception of the Committee of Regions. Note: Security check In for visitors with EP-badges, too!)
09:30 – 10:00 opening: Martina Michels, MEP
keynote:
Jane Whyatt, Martin Hoffmann, ECPMF: ECPMF as new hub a for media freedom. The Centre was founded in 2015 to help journalists under threat and defend press and media freedom in Europe. The Centre is based in Leipzig, Germany, and is a Preparatory Action partly funded by EU DG-Connect, the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, the State of Saxony and the City of Leipzig. ECPMF plays a co-ordinating role, bringing together the media freedom community to give it a stronger voice and greater impact.
10:00 – 11:15 First part: keynote und contributions
- Flutura Kusari, ECPMF: Whistleblowers struggle for protection
- Stelios Kouloglou, MEP
- Fabio De Masi, MEP
- Whistleblowers are a crucial source of information in journalism and help the public to hold institutions accountable. Yet, when they go public they are fired, demoted or found guilty of committing a crime. This has the case of Antoine Deltour from LuxLeaks and Maria Bamieh from EULEXLeaks. These cases have shown that whistleblowers struggle for protection in national and EU level. This presentation aims to present an overview of whistleblowing cases and what could be done to protect whistleblowers.
11.15 – 11.45 coffee break
11:45 – 13:00 Second part: keynote and contributions
- Jane Whyatt, ECPMF: Public service broadcasting – What impact can EU regulation have on PSM-independence?
- Petra Kammerevert, MEP, S&D, Rapporteur for the revision of the AVMS directive
- Curzio Maltese, MEP, Shadow GUENGL for the revision of the AVMS directive
- Jácint Horváth, S&D, CoR-rapporteur for the revision of the AVMS directive
- Several public service broadcasters in the EU face growing political pressure from their national governments that compromises their independence. In the ECPMF’s fact finding missions to Poland and Croatia we have clearly established that the politically-motivated mass sackings of TV and radio journalists have resulted in a pro-government bias in output. These developments diminish public trust in the broadcasters, which should offer accurate and balanced news coverage and a range of different cultural perspectives. ERGA, EU´s regulator of the regulators, could be a measure to help to take pressure from PSMs in a threatened position like those in Poland and Croatia. Therefore we see an urgent need to discuss the amendments to AVMSD Directive 2010/13/EU, which were proposed to it recently.
Close of meeting: 13:00 Uhr
