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Justice, the fight against corruption, the framework for a balance of power and freedom and pluralism of the media, discussed in the European Commission reports on the rule of law, are interrelated and should be debated, as less because its defects merge into undrinkable. cocktail.
This was stated by the Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Values Vera Yourova at the beginning of the International Conference on Media Freedom in Bulgaria organized by the BSP MEP and the group of socialists and democrats Elena Yoncheva. The topics of the forum, co-organized with the Brussels edition of Euroactiv and which you can see here, are in two panels entitled “How the European Union can help” and “Can Europe listen to us”.
Dnevnik published the text of Commissioner Yourova’s speech without abbreviations. The emphasis is on the media.
Thank you very much Ms. Yoncheva, thank you to the organizers for inviting me. I would like to be with you, but the situation does not allow us to travel.
To begin with, I would like to send you a very strong message and wish you are healthy and safe.
When I presented the first report on the rule of law two weeks ago, I said that I wanted to enter into a dialogue not only with the Member States, but also with the European Parliament and national parliaments, as well as with other participants in the process. That is why I am here today to discuss these important issues with you. This is the first time that the commission has looked at the rule of law issues in the union more generally. I think it is important to discuss this report because we are doing something new. The novelty is that the report covers
four main pillars that we believe are interconnected
– justice, the fight against corruption, a framework of control and balance of power and freedom and pluralism of the media, which is also the subject of debate. We think it is important to discuss these issues because we see connections between them. At least because flaws often melt into a non-drinkable cocktail, that’s why we want a broader view and a broad and intense discussion.
The purpose of the report is also to draw attention to the rule of law, to promote possible solutions that can be found at national and European level. Let us now focus on the freedom and pluralism of the media. This was also demonstrated by the COVID-19 crisis. Journalists were at the forefront,
to inform us, but also to subject us to observation
the measures taken by the people in power. Unfortunately, we see that in Europe the work of journalists takes place in increasingly difficult conditions. However, in addition to the economic crisis and the loss of jobs in the sector, political pressure and attacks and threats against journalists are also a problem.
We can say that no country is exempt from such risks and we have carried out an objective assessment of this situation in the EU.
As I said and you can already see from the report on Bulgaria, the concerns are related to the ownership of the media and the distribution of state advertising. The report emphasizes that
many Bulgarian journalists describe political interference
in the media as a common problem. Another worrying trend is that various organizations report physical or online attacks on journalists in Bulgaria. Campaigns against independent and investigative journalists have been reported exposing corruption and lawsuits.
What will the commission do about it? First of all, I will ask the countries that have not yet done so, including Bulgaria, to transpose the Directive on audiovisual media services. It promotes the independence of media regulators and the transparency of media ownership. It went into effect on September 20, so it is currently on the agenda.
The Commission, with the support of the EP, has launched a series of pilot projects to show where the risks and threats lie to the freedom and pluralism of the media, to support investigative journalists and to offer legal and practical assistance to journalists in need of such support. We want
increase funding for these types of projects
in the next budget, and at the moment, as we are still negotiating (on the budget), we are talking about 61 million euros. I am glad to be here with the MEPs, because we need to push this budget and other programs that need to provide funding to the media, such as Invest EU.
We have more to do: by the end of the year, we will present two action plans for the media sector and media pluralism.
First The European Action Plan for Democracy on how to improve the safety of journalists and on strategic cases that limit citizen participation (SLAP). Journalists need to spend their time at work, to be the guardians of our democracy, not in court.
In the Action Plan for Democracy, we will announce the SLAP plan next year. We will also examine the rules of diversity and concentration of ownership in the media to ensure a multiplicity of votes.
Is second The audiovisual media action plan – will explore the digital transformation of these sectors. When it comes to the media, the responsibility in the media sector lies with the Member States, not with the committee. That is why dialogue between national authorities is so important and I am ready to participate in it. The Commission cannot fight this battle alone, but I am ready to use all the tools at my disposal to reverse the negative trends, to see a different situation with pluralism and freedom of the media in the EU. I believe that this is the only way forward for democracy to flourish. Thank you!
