Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 25 organizations sent a joint letter to Ursula von der Leyen (re-elected as Commission President yesterday) calling on her to re-appoint a Commission Vice-President with a mandate to promote press freedom and journalist safety. https://lnkd.in/en8MA2F4
So where is the EU on media freedom in Europe? Since 2019, Brussels has been acting, legislating and speaking out more -and has come some way. But now press freedom groups want to see the fruits of some of these labours.
After the 2019 elections, Věra Jourová was appointed Vice-President for Values and Transparency. At the time, this was a big step for Brussels. The European Commission had previously shied away from taking on press freedom.
Under Jourova, we have seen important steps to defend journalists: the European Media Freedom Act, the anti-SLAPP Directive, the Journalist Safety Recommendation, and the Rule of Law reports. To name several.
In 2023, I joint published a report entitled “Fragile Progress” that went through these recent actions taken by the Commission. We thought of this title because it encapsulated the chequered relationship that the EU has -overall- with press freedom.
So are the latest efforts actually helping journalists? Well, the European Commission needs to continue the work -but take on the more complicated role of monitoring, evaluating and challenging what is happening around the EU.
By being critical, supporting and intervening, it can build trust with journalists that Brussels can really help -including getting ambitious and tough on the Rule of Law (that means getting innovative with fund conditionality -see our letter above for details).
For this, we need continued political support for media freedom -but importantly we need another Vice President with a mandate, budget and resources. DG CONNECT can channel much work.
With a concerning surge in far-right extremism and populism, a strong press can help safeguard the EU’s treaty values and the functioning of the institutions.
President von der Leyen must build on the measures taken in her 1st term. The reference in yesterday’s Political Guidelines for the Next European Commission and her speech was a good start. But in the coming weeks and months, the Commission can go further and think ambitiously.