Intermediate Position Paper 01

A healthy and pluralistic news media environment is tantamount to democracy. However, we stress that the only budget earmarked for news media within the whole Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-27 is within Creative Europe Programme.

We welcome the Commission’s proposal, notable as it acknowledges the need for a sustainable and performant news media sector, which is essential for democracy.

However, we regret that the budget allocated to the programme (€64 million) – the only budget for news media in the whole MFF – has decreased compared to the previous one, while Creative Europe now covers a higher number of activities. We believe that this budget does not suffice for Creative Europe to meet its goals, notably in terms of press freedom and media pluralism, nor to tackle with the structural and technological changes the news media sector is facing.

We, therefore, recommend what follows:

1. That the co-legislators consider supporting “professional journalism” rather than “quality journalism” mentioned by the Commission’s Creative Europe proposal (art. 6), as quality journalism should not be defined by the EU institutions. The grants allocated to the media sector under the cross-sector strand should, therefore, bare the condition that applicants are professional media and/or journalists;
2. That the co-legislators set up a clear set of priorities for the press sector. In our view, those priorities should focus on safeguarding the diversity and sustainability of the European news media ecosystem. This means assessing their needs and the challenges they face, starting with how to tackle with the main platforms in terms of e.g. advertising, data gathering, and journalism information modelling.
3. That the co-legislators help promoting a diverse and pluralist media environment as well as to counter disinformation by supporting media literacy and training programmes for journalists, helping them to adapt to new tools (existing and to be developed) and formats, to work with User Generated Content and to tackle with new ways of spreading disinformation.  We also recommend the funding of programmes promoting cross-exchanges among journalists, cross-border and cross-media collaborative and shared stories as well as supporting cooperative, hyperlocal, investigative and deep journalism. This could be achieved through specific grants and promoting networking activities.
4. That the co-legislators help promote freedom of the press through supporting initiatives which are monitoring the press and media freedom in Europe, such as the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom;
5. Consequently, that the budget allocated to the news media sector should be increased to at least €100 million, and that the activities mentioned in the cross-sectoral strand should be earmarked as separate budget for each sector, so as to grant potential applicants more legal certainty and a clearer view over possible future projects aiming at contributing to the sector’s sustainability.

4. safeguard the diversity and sustainability of the European news media ecosystem, and

To News media 

Un environnement médiatique pluraliste et sain est essentiel pour la démocratie en Europe. Toutefois, nous notons que le seul budget prévu pour les médias au sein du

> stress that it’s the only budget for news media, which are essential to democracy

> check for news media needs > an environment where they can get more sources of revenues (subscriptions, copyright, advertising + support from the EU)

> €61 m is the minimum needed to foster collaboration and networks such as ECPMF

> build technological solutions to work together in a digital age

> tech solutions for competing against GAFA grabbing all the digital advertising (data gathering) and subscriptions? How to build analytics together? (v. radio player)

> under the current H2020 it is not possible (check)

> help bringing the non-profit news organisations together

> networking; meeting

> support investigative journalism

> monitoring media pluralism > at least continued in the same size

> business

> training on media literacy & how to deal with news & disinformation & social media (check for precedents)

> media freedom > at least continued in the same size

> innovation labs > develop applications; experimentation

• promote  media and information literacy to counter disinformation and help users navigate the digital media environment;

> media literacy for journalists > developing digital skills

• develop tools for empowering users and journalists to tackle disinformation and foster a positive engagement with fast-evolving information technologies;

Combating disinformation through better knowing the EU institutions and how they work

Using social media to tackle disinformation and defend democracy

Help facing structural changes

>Stress that none of the actions mentioned could fit under programmes like Horizon Europe