What’s New in the Media ?

Several EU Member States are declining in World Press Freedom rankings according to the 2010 World Press Freedom Index that was issued yesterday, Wednesday, 20 October 2010. The annual index of 178 countries measures violations of press freedom across the globe and is based on events between 1 September 2009 and 1 September 2010. To compile the index, Reporters Without Borders assessed the state of press freedom in each country on the basis of a questionnaire with 43 criteria. More »

Broadband access has been a fundamental right in Finland since August 2010. The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, FICORA, appointed 26 telecommunication companies across the country as “universal service” providers. In practice, the new regulation forces telecom operators to provide a reasonable priced broadband connection to every permanent residence or office with a downstream rate of at least one megabit per second. The goal is to increase the minimum speed up to 100 megabits per second by 2015. According to FICORA, a monthly fee of 30 to 40 Euros would be reasonable in most cases. More »

Greece withdrew a law proposal that introduced a 21.5% tax on the Internet ad revenue of news web sites based within the nation. Considering the country’s flourishing internet economy, the proposed tax would have offered significant revenue to Greece’s troubled budget. Specifically, the proceeds of the proposed tax would have financed the retirement of journalists working in online media, many of whom are not currently covered by the Greek pension system. More »

The new OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, released her inaugural report to the OSCE Permanent Council on July 29. The report, issued annually by the OSCE, provides an overview of particular incidences threatening media freedom in OSCE participating states. Additionally, this report includes the Representative’s interventions on the respective issues, as well as a presentation of the Office’s future plans. More »

Credits:Creative Commons

The draft law decree on tapping, which has recently passed the vote in the Italian Senate (upper house), has triggered an intense debate in Italy concerning freedom of expression, particularly by journalists and the press in general. The act modifies the Italian penal and procedural codes and introduces new clauses sanctioning the behaviour of magistrates, journalists and publishers in case of non compliance.

In particular, the act takes a questionable interpretation of data protection (see the intervention of the Italian Data Protection Authority on the point) in order to limit the quantity and timing of the publication of information gathered through telephone interception in addition to any data concerning existing investigations used in the course of court proceedings. More »

At the Media Lounge event of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT), the Association of European Radios (AER), the Association of Television and Radio Sales Houses (EGTA), the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA), the European Publishers Council (EPC), the European Association of Magazine Publishers (FAEP) and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) at the European Parliament on 30^th June 2010, the European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, Ms Neelie Kroes, addressed the main focus of the event: media transformation and development in the social life of European citizens. More »

Credits: Creative Commons

A reasoned opinion was sent last week to the Greek government for failure to implement the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. Similarly to 11 other EU Member States (Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia), the Greek state has not yet complied with its obligations under the revised version of the former Television without Frontiers Directive. The European Commission has set a deadline of 2 months for the transposition of the Directive in the Greek legal order. If Greece fails to meet the deadline, the case might be brought before the European Court of Justice. More »

On 8 June 2010, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) presented a declaration calling for better protection of media pluralism and press freedom in the European Union. Across political party affiliation, five MEPs reiterated the need to ensure media independence in EU Member States in accordance with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The declaration calls on Member States to support independent journalism free of any political and commercial interference. It also stresses the need for financial support targeting better social and professional conditions for journalists and media workers in the EU. More »