EJN contributes to EU report on new media freedom mechanism

On May 25th the communications officer of the Ethical Journalism Network, Tom Law, attended a meeting at the European parliament to exchange views with MEPs, journalists, NGOs and media representatives on how to monitor and safeguard media freedom and pluralism in the European Union.

The EJN was invited to participate by Sophie in ‘t Veld a Dutch member of the European Parliament, who is a the rapporteur for the parliament’s report on “The establishment of an EU mechanism on Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights”.

Following the meeting the Ethical Journalism Network and the European Federation of Journalists put forward a joint submission regarding the proposed new mechanism to monitor press freedom in EU member states.

Inspired by our shared belief in the importance of self-regulation to ensure media freedom and the role ethical journalism can play as an inspiration for free expression the following amendments were submitted for consideration:

Given that ethical journalism and good governance in media are essential for protection of human rights and for creating informed democratic communities, each member state should promote the creation of sustainable structures for independent self-regulation of media, across all platforms of journalism.

Ethical journalism, which provides responsible communications through a framework of values, should be considered as an integral part of strategies for media and information literacy in member states in the promotion of responsible communications across the open information landscape.

For more information on the mechanism see the press release regarding the proposed binding EU Pact on Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights.

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