Parliamentary Assembly: Resolution on Media Freedom and Public Service Broadcasting Funding

IRIS 2015-4:1/2

Ronan Ó Fathaigh

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

On 29 January 2015, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a new resolution on the “Protection of the safety of journalists and of media freedom in Europe”. The wide-ranging resolution details recent attacks on the media in Europe, while the Assembly urges member States to “step up their domestic and multilateral efforts” to protect the life, liberty and security of those working for and with the media.

Of particular note for audiovisual media, the resolution also discusses the importance of media pluralism and notes that “transparency of media ownership is necessary in order to monitor media concentration, to prevent media from being in the hands of a few and to enable pluralism of media ownership”. In this regard, the Assembly proposes to publicise a “Media Identity Card” designed to “provide information about the owners of a media outlet and those who contribute substantially to its income, such as big advertisers or donors”.

Moreover, concerning public service broadcasting funding and recalling its earlier Recommendation 1878 (2009) (see IRIS 2009-8/3), the Assembly expresses its alarm at “tendencies in some member States to erode the financial stability and the independence of public service broadcasters. Public service broadcasting remains an important element in a democratic society for providing the public at large with unbiased information and culture in an increasingly commercialised, economically weakened and politically controlled media landscape”.

Finally, the Assembly invites national parliaments to hold annual public debates on the state of media freedom in their countries and reiterates that the Assembly considers it important that media freedom in Europe remains on the agenda of the Assembly and the Council of Europe as a whole.