Freedom of the media, pluralism, and transparency. European media policy on new paths?

Abstract

Although the European Union has been pursuing media policy for decades, its legal competence for the media sector remains limited. Since its inception in the 1980s, the EU had to base its media policy on its responsibility to enforce the internal market and the direct application of competition law, which has led to a one-sided economic perspective on the media. With references to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the enshrinement of European values in the EU Treaty, the rule of law mechanism, and driven by the European Parliament, the EU Commission has recently shown a new direction in its media-related activities, which acknowledge the important role of the media in democracy and increasingly place media freedom and media pluralism at the center of its media policy. The draft European Media Freedom Act presented by the Commission in autumn 2022 brings together the numerous activities aimed at protecting the freedom of the media and their independence, and at the same time seems to test the limits of the scope for its media policy.