Press Freedom On The Line: the MFRR Summit 2023 full program
The MFRR Summit 2023 edition will take place online from the 29 – 31 March. The conference, “Press Freedom On The Line”, will focus on safety, media capture, the rule of law, and SLAPPs, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR)’s main campaigns areas. A large range of panel discussions, live interviews, and keynote speeches with journalists, media freedom experts, policy-makers, and other stakeholders all working to defend press freedom will take place during these two days.
Day 1 (29 March)
With an opening word by Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, the day will focus on the thematic of the safety of journalists, especially in times of war. Speeches will highlight threats to journalists in EU member states and candidate countries, and a range of initiatives will be discussed. A workshop on online abuse self-defence training will conclude that first day.
Day 2 (30 March)
Impunity, SLAPPs and the Rule Of Law will come under the spotlights for the second day of the summit, with discussions on how the European Union can remain a model for human rights by responding to global developments in a fundamental rights compliant manner, and a case study on Italy and the newspaper Domani.
Day 3 (31 March)
A particular focus will be brought to media capture in Europe and the crisis of political exploitation through the abuse of state economic and regulatory levers. The panels will shine a light on the dangers surrounding media pluralism, the need to defend pluralistic media and the role of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) in tackling media capture. The last session will be on media capture in the digital age.
Two options are available to follow the conference: on Zoom, for an interactive panel, or on the MFRR Youtube channel. The summit will also feature the award ceremony for the 2023 IJ4EU Impact Award for cross-border investigative journalism.
This statement was produced as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries.
