European Commission

Jerzy Buzek & I at the Speak Up! Conference

Media freedom and freedom of expression have been big topics in 2011 – just look at what the heroes of North Africa and the Mediterranean have been prepared to do to win or defend these rights. Travelling back from the European Parliament in Strasbourg this morning, it occurred to me that I haven’t written about these issues on my blog. Let me correct that today – because media freedom is high on the EU agenda. We support this in law, through debate and through research. We support it online and offline. So I want you to know we will not waver in that support, and in fact I’ve just finished another important discussion about it.

Last night, the topic of discussion was media freedom and freedom of expression in countries that are applying to join the EU. Štefan Füle, Jerzy Buzek and also Fernando López Aguilar and Barbara Lochbihler, two important Parliamentary committee chairs, joined me. The point I put to the group is that the Commission takes freedoms seriously in all our partner countries – we don’t stop this work at our borders. An important element of that is the Commission’s partnership with the Parliament – a united voice is a stronger voice, after all.

So I am proud that we make these freedoms part of our discussions and negotiations when we travel to partner countries. And I am proud that we have hosted events like the Speak Up! conference in May 2011. This conference took place in Brussels with representatives of the media from enlargement countries; it served as an important political signal to the governments of these countries that the existence of these freedoms affects the EU’s relationship with them. And I am proud that we are undertaking important projects like the European Endowment for Democracy – to help give a voice to civil society in the new democracies that are emerging in our region.

Closer to home the work has been varied and ongoing. Starting in 2011 we worked to ensure the Hungarian government amended its new “media law” so that it complied with EU law in general and with the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) in particular.

Thanks to our efforts the Hungarian government committed to change the Hungarian Media law on four points: i) the obligation of balanced coverage, ii) the country of origin principle, iii) registration requirements and iv) offensive content. The agreed amendments were adopted by the Hungarian Government on 7 March 2011. As a follow-up the Commission is verifying that Hungary (and indeed seven other EU Member States) are fully implementing that directive as required. We have sought written responses from the governments in question and are now analysing those responses.

Overall, I can assure you that we would not hesitate to take further action, if needed.

While many matters in this area fall outside the scope of EU law, we will keep working to ensure that obligations regarding fundamental rights – as resulting from international agreements and from domestic legislation, including freedom of expression and information and the principle of non-discrimination – are respected.

I’ve pushed for two recent actions that will help ensure this.  First, an independent Committee on Freedom and Pluralism of the Media which met for the first time on 11 October 2011. You could not wish for a more excellent group to undertake this work, led by the former President of Latvia, Prof. Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.  And secondly we have provided €600,000 in funding for a new academic centre to be based at the European University Institute in Florence, to reflect on how best to continue promoting media freedoms and pluralism.

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Tags: Digital Agenda, European Commission, European Parliament, Freedom of Expression, Media, media freedom, Neelie Kroes, speak up!