"Everyone reporting on facts without misuse will have EU support, " said Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission, in her address to the participants of the annual AIPCE (The Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe) conference, which took place in Ayia Napa, Cyprus. Jourová made this statement presenting the Media Freedom Act, which the EC adopted last month, but which has received almost no attention at all in our professional circles.
The Media Freedom Act only relates to the EU member states, but will certainly be very significant for countries such as Serbia, which aspire to join the community of the European countries.
Journalists and the media across Europe had been keenly awaiting this document, which – as the EC President Ursula von der Leyen stated last year – ought to ensure systemic support for the media in safeguarding their independence and survival in the market. "Media companies cannot be treated as just another business. Their independence is essential," von der Leyen said in September last year.
The Media Freedom Act stipulates support for the protection of the media's editorial independence; transparency of ownership and public and state advertising funding; more robust safeguards against the unjustified removal of online media content; banning the spying of journalists and their families; as well as independent and adequate public service media funding and the establishment of a European media services body. The Act also envisages greater support for media pluralism, based on the ethical principles of the journalism.
In practice, this means concrete budgets for the purposes of achieving these goals.
The EU is also said to be set to implement a range of activities and launch multiple initiatives for supporting media freedom and media pluralism.
Other important aspects of the Media Freedom Act are the support for self-regulatory bodies, which will be a relevant source regarding media credibility, as well as ensuring equal terms between the media and very large online platforms that the media make use of to present their content.
This act also envisages bringing into alignment the existing regulations at the level of all the member states, as well as adopting new ones.
The extent to which the Act will help and be useful to the media and journalists in Serbia will depend on the readiness of all the media sphere actors to align with its provisions. The local specificities should certainly be taken into account, and ways should be found to ensure they fit in with the provisions of this act without detriment to the media and journalists.
One of the topics of the AIPCE conference concerned the important ethical dilemmas confronting the representatives of the self-regulatory bodies, press Ombudsmen and ethics editors, as well as the journalists and media in Europe. Alongside the Press Council, Serbia's Adria Media Group also attended this convention as the only media company in the region which has introduced a professional post for the improvement of ethical standards – initially for Kurir, and then for all the other editions of our company. A huge leap has thus been made in self-regulation, as confirmed by the fact that, according to the Press Council monitoring, in 2020 Kurir reduced the number of Journalists’ Code of Ethics breaches by app. 40 percent compared to the previous year. Through its continuous work, primarily through permanent staff education, Adria Media Group endeavours to ensure this trend continues with the aim of constantly improving adherence to the ethical standards of journalism.
Petar Jeremić
Ethical Standards Manager at Adria Media Group
