The International Press Institute (IPI) today publishes its submission to the European Union’s Democracy Shield consultation, urging EU institutions to place supporting media freedom, independent journalism and a vibrant and pluralistic media sector at the heart of the strategy.
In its submission, IPI warns that the market imbalances of the media sector have reached the point where the survival of independent news media is in question. These economic challenges to journalism are being confronted amidst growing threats on multiple fronts including legal harassment, physical attacks, cyberattacks, surveillance and political capture of the media.
IPI therefore calls for disinformation to be tackled at its root cause by addressing the business models of tech platforms that prioritize disinformation over public interest news. IPI stresses the dangers of relying on content regulation tools which may be used to censor legitimate content and restrict information and instead to focus on correcting the market imbalances that are driving the media’s economic decline.
“A robust, quality media environment with a strong local media sector is an indispensable antidote to disinformation.”
IPI recommends that the EU Democracy Shield should prioritize the following:
– Policies that strengthen and re-balance the media market
– Public funding for the most critical sectors of local media and investigative journalism
– Media innovation to build financial sustainability
– Education and training for journalists
– Ensuring an enabling environment for journalists including work on safety, independent journalism and the effective implementation of new EU regulations to protect media freedoms.
Click here to read the full submission
The European Democracy Shield has identified four key priority objectives:
- Countering disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).
- Ensuring fairness and integrity of elections and democratic processes and strengthening democratic frameworks and checks and balances, including free, plural and independent media and CSOs.
- Strengthening societal resilience and preparedness, including digital and media literacy, critical thinking, etc.
- Fostering citizens’ participation and engagement.
This statement by IPI is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries, and Ukraine. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.
