EFJ Welcomes EU Consultation on Media Freedom and Pluralism

Today the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) welcomed the announcement of the official consultation launched by European Commissioner Neelie Kroes about media freedom and pluralism.

"After many years of debates among civil society organisations and at the European Parliament, we are glad that the European Commission is now formally launching this consultation process and we hope that it will lead to concrete action," said EFJ President Arne König.

The consultation, which was announced Friday last week in Dublin, Ireland, follows recommendations issued by a High Level Group (HLG) on Media Freedom and Pluralism appointed by the Commission. It called citizens and organisations to comments on issues such as the scope of the EU's competence on media freedom, the respective roles of public authorities and self-regulation or the protection of journalistic sources in Europe.  A second consultation is specifically limited to the issue of independence of audiovisual regulatory bodies.

"We always defended press freedom as a fundamental right; many years ago we called the Commission to act against conflict of interest in Italy and recently against the authoritarian regime in Hungary. Therefore we will convey our views to the Commission in a very clear matter," said König.

The EFJ is a leading partner of the European Citizen's Initiative for media pluralism, a petition which is gathering one million signatures to demand more transparency in media ownership and an end to conflict of interests.

"It is a key momentum to make our voice heard for the sake of journalism as a public good," added König, "and we also call on our member organisations to contribute to this consultation."

The consultation, accessible in English, French and German on this link is open until 14th June 2013.

Links and resources:
- European Citizen's Initiative for media pluralism: http://europe.ifj.org/en/pages/european-initiative-for-media-pluralism - EFJ comments on the HLG Recommendations: http://europe.ifj.org/en/articles/eu-high-level-group-issues-recommendations-on-media-and-journalism

For more information, please contact EFJ on + 32 2 235 22 00
The European Federation of Journalists is the European group of the International Federation of Journalists. It represents over 300,000 journalists in 37 countries.