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.