5 takeaways on the EU’s new media rules

The European Union is calling time on efforts to erode media freedom.
Negotiators of the EU’s main institutions agreed on new rules to support media pluralism and strengthen editorial independence in newsrooms in a deal struck Friday afternoon.
The law is a response to creeping state control over media organizations, most notably in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has seized de facto control of 80 percent of the country’s media, according to Reporters without Borders. It also seeks to limit governments’ use of spyware to snoop on reporters, after scandals in Greece, Spain, Hungary and elsewhere showed journalists were a prime target for intrusive software tools.
But the law faces skepticism from national capitals and even regions like Germany’s Länder that previously warned that the European Commission was overstepping its role in regulating media affairs in EU countries. The final text also leaves loopholes in some parts and lacks teeth in others — making it hard for the EU to take concrete action against cracks in media freedom.
Here’s what the new law means for journalists and media across Europe:
In the wake of the Pegasus scandal that revealed that reporters — including in France, Spain and Hungary — were the targets of spyware, the Commission originally suggested banning governments from going after journalists to access their sources by deploying spyware on their phones, unless it was essential to investigate serious crimes like terrorism and human trafficking.
But national capitals, led by Paris, pushed for a bigger carve-out in the shape of new language stressing the ban should be “without prejudice to the member states’ responsibility for safeguarding national security.” Press freedom advocates and trade associations slammed these suggestions, arguing they’d be blank checks to snoop at will.
Negotiators landed on new wording in the final deal that will say the article should “respect” the responsibilities of member countries, as laid down in the treaties.
Any actions leading to journalists’ sources will have to be clearly justified and subject to prior authorization from a judge. So will the deployment of spyware, which can now be used to investigate a broader list of crimes but only if other measures have proved to be insufficient.
The non-binding part of the law (recitals) will also mention that governments shouldn’t be using private vendors to deploy spyware.
The new law intends to keep newsrooms safe from political meddling, including public broadcasters. It lays out some rules for picking and firing their management team and for funding that should be “sustainable and predictable” — all to make sure they’re not at the mercy of political flip-flopping.
State advertising will come under stronger scrutiny, with a new obligation to distribute these public funds to a plurality of media, in an open and non-discriminatory way.
“The whole tendency in Hungary, which leads to monopolization of information, is something we don’t want to happen everywhere else,” Commission Vice President Věra Jourová previously told POLITICO in an interview, adding that “the difference between supporting a media economically in a transparent way and a corrupted media in a hidden way is big.”
All media companies will also have to be transparent about their ownership, including about any ties with political power, and disclose that information in a new database.
The law will create a new layer of protection from arbitrary decisions made by big online platforms.
Social media giants like Facebook, Instagram or X (formerly known as Twitter) will have to wait 24 hours to take down a post by self-declared media providers that may breach the platforms’ own rules. The tech giants also need to give the media a chance to challenge the decisions.
To claim this special treatment, media companies will have to apply to the platforms and prove they are editorially independent from any political power, subject to regulatory requirements. They’ll also need to provide contact details.
Opponents to the mechanism, including the platforms themselves and disinformation activists, have lobbied hard against this article, claiming that a 24-hour must-carry obligation will allow fake news from rogue actors to circulate unchallenged, long enough for the harm to be done, and will clash with the bloc’s new content moderation rulebook, the Digital Services Act.
Member countries will be required to set up procedures in national law to check out media mergers which may have an impact on pluralism and independence.
The national authority responsible for the assessment will also have to run its draft opinion to the newly-created board entrusted to oversee the enforcement of the media rules. Both the board and the Commission will be allowed to look into a merger on their initiative.
Some lawmakers criticized the solution for lacking teeth. “Very concerned letters from Brussels won’t make Orbán let go of his control over the Hungarian media sector,” European Parliament Green Party lawmaker Daniel Freund urged at the time.
Most of the regulation will start to apply 15 months after it enters into force.
Although the law doesn’t include fines, it could come at a big cost for the EU capitals that are not willing to play the game, Jourová reminded on Friday, hinting at infringement procedures. The Commission can take member countries to the Court of Justice if they fail to comply with the new rules, risking high penalties.
She also emphasized that the national court will play a key role in watching over the new rights and duties introduced in the law, including when it comes to the surveillance of journalists.