Court-reviewed surveillance, transparency measures: Europe parliament clears press freedom law

The European Parliament has approved the Media Freedom Act, which was first proposed by the EU executive in September 2022, with 464 votes in favour, 92 against and 65 abstentions.

The legislation must now be formally approved by a vote in the Council of the European Union before the EU’s official journal publishes it.

The new law prohibits authorities from forcing journalists to disclose their sources.

While the use of spyware has been allowed, it will be possible only on a case by case basis and will depend on authorisation by a judicial authority – subjects will have the right to be informed after the surveillance has occurred and will be able to challenge it in court.

Several EU states such as France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden, and Finland had earlier pushed for an exemption allowing governments to tap into journalists’ conversations for national security purposes.

Under the new law, it will not be possible to dismiss heads of public media organisations and their board members before the completion of contract as long as they meet the criteria. Additionally, the law states that public media will have to be financed using transparent procedures.

In a further boost to transparency within the media sector, the law states that current affairs outlets, irrespective of their size, must publish information about ownership on a national database.

Against online censorship?

Tech platforms, such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram, will not be able to arbitrarily restrict or delete independent media content. 

The European Media Freedom Act, which was approved by the European Parliament’s committee on culture on January 24 after the approval of EU member states, reportedly relies on the journalism trust initiative mechanism. 

JTI is an official ISO-type standard published in December 2019 by the European Committee for Standardisation in a first for Europe’s news publishing industry. Any media outlet that strives for excellence by referring to the different clauses of the JTI standard has the option to be audited by an external, independent certifier. 

Under the European Media Freedom Act, platforms such as Meta and X will be encouraged to use JTI to identify trustworthy news media. 

Media outfits will have to be notified in case of objections and given 24 hours to respond. They can then take the case to an out-of-court dispute settlement body and request an opinion from the European Board for Media Services, which is a new EU board of national regulators to be set up by the EMFA.

NGO Reporters Without Borders termed the law a “major step forward for the right to information within the European Union”.

Věra Jourová, European Commissioner for values and transparency, told the parliament that the legislation will send a “clear message to those who want to weaken democracy”.