Media freedom in dire state in record number of countries, report finds
GuardianAPR 2023
Report: EU Media Freedom Near 'Breaking Point'
Image copyright: Stefano Montesi - Corbis/Corbis News via Getty Images
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
As Europe faces increased threats to a free press, the Media Freedom Act is a desperately needed positive development for both public and independent journalism. It aims to safeguard media pluralism, protect user rights, and ensure the independence of public media services within the European Union — addressing challenges in the evolving digital media landscape.
Establishment-critical narrative
The real reason for the EU's media law is to create a new tool to target EU-skeptical countries like Poland and Hungary. If Brussels cared about fostering a truly free-speech-oriented environment for the public and its press, it wouldn't simultaneously applaud so-called "hate speech laws" that actually criminalize speech. The EU doesn't care about media concentration so long as those outlets align with the bloc's ideology.