24.2.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 45/1471 COMMISSION PILOT PROJECTS
CHAPTER PP 07 — INVESTING IN PEOPLE, SOCIAL COHESION AND VALUES (cont'd) PP 07 22
(cont'd)
PP 07 22 02
(cont'd) Remarks
New technologies are dramatically and constantly changing the opinion-making dynamics and the media landscape.
While they allow to easily distribute information of public interest to wider audiences, fostering plurality, the way information is created, searched and distributed online, they also may accentuate polarisation in which a person is exposed to news, sources and ideas that adhere to her expressed preferences.
This in combination with the profit driven platforms, which share data for purely commercial reasons, can significantly undermine the potential to encounter and debate opposing viewpoints and, as such, may poses a risk for ethical journalism, media pluralism and European democracy itself.
At the same time, journalists and other media actors face violence, threats, harassment or public shaming in the Union mainly because of their investigative activities to protect the public interest from the misuse of power, corruption, human rights violations or criminal activities, and according to the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists, more than half of the cases of abuses against media professionals are committed by state actors.
We have witnessed a tidal wave of disinformation and propaganda rapidly disseminated through the internet and other media.
Given the social and political consequences, it is more crucial than ever that our citizens be critical users of both media and social media the media.
It is necessary to invest adequate financial resources in media and digital literacy and in developing common Union strategies, together with journalists, academics, international and civil society organisations, in order to empower citizens and online users to recognise and be aware of dubious sources of information and to spot and expose deliberately false content and propaganda.
The ‘European Festival of Journalism and Media Information Literacy’ is aimed to reinforce dialogue, cooperation and partnership in the Union, among journalists, media outlets including public service media, civil society organizations and media literacy professionals, focusing on the crucial questions of our time, with a special attention on youth, including student journalists, people and social media on how to tackle disinformation in the age of post-truth.
Each year, journalists from all over Europe will be invited to submit online prior contributions, on a dedicated platform, and bring forward concrete proposals for improving legislation and working conditions for the sector at both European and national levels.
Under the auspices of this event, media professionals will be able to elaborate new proposals, monitor the implementation of existing rules and set out deliverables in areas such as the protection and safety of journalists, social security, a new business model for media, the role and impact of digitalisation on the media sector, the role of media in tackling disinformation or increasing media literacy.
The event will then gather media professionals from different backgrounds, i.e. large media corporations, freelancers, independent investigative journalists, local media outlets, as well as representatives of press associations and media freedom NGOs, inviting national and European authorities’ representatives as guest speakers or observers.
This format will not only improve journalists' awareness of existing measures and of best practices, but will also allow national and European authorities to connect and better understand the needs of the sector in the form of an annual structured dialogue.
Every year, the event will produce a list of policy recommendations, taking into account contributions which have been submitted by journalists all around Europe, and set out conclusions to be drawn therefrom.
These recommendations should then constitute the basis for policy actions in the field of media freedom, included in the working programmes of the European Commission, as well as other relevant