Activities of Ivo BELET related to 2011/2246(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the EU Charter: standard settings for Media Freedom across the EU
Amendments (37)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that free and independent media are one of the foundations of democracy and the rule of law; notes the role of free media and the free exchange of information in the democratic transformations taking place in non- democratic regimes; calls on the Commission to support independent media whose activities are restricted by authoritarian regimes;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 3 a (new)
Citation 3 a (new)
– having regard to Protocol No 29, annexed to the TEU, on the system of public broadcasting in the Member States,
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
– having regard to the independent study, conducted at the Commission's request, in which a Media Monitoring Tool is defined with indicators to highlight threats to media pluralism,
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7
Citation 7
– having regard to its resolutions of 20 November 2002 on media concentration2 , of 4 September 2003 on the situation as regards fundamental rights in the European Union (2002)3 , of 4 September 2003 on Television without Frontiers4 , of 6 September 2005 on the application of Articles 4 and 5 of Directive 89/552/EEC (‘Television without Frontiers’), as amended by Directive 97/36/EC, for the period 2001-20025 , of 22 April 2004 on the risks of violation, in the EU and especially in Italy, of freedom of expression and information (Article 11(2) of the Charter of Fundamental6 , of 25 September 2008 on concentration and pluralism in the media in the European Union7 , of 25 November 2010 on public service broadcasting in the digital era: the future of the dual system, and of 10 March 2011 on media law in Hungary8 ,
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Stresses that the Commission should ensure that Member States guarantee proper implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in their country, manifested through media pluralism, equal access to information and respect for the independence of the press through neutrality;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Emphasises that a pluralistic media landscape is essential for the well functioning of a democratic system, since the participation of citizens in public debate and access to information in the digital world depend on a vibrant and competitive audiovisual and written press sector;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Strongly emphasises the educational and cultural role of the public media; suggests that the commercial activities of the public media should solely complement the promotion of culture and their educational missionUnderlines the fundamental role of a genuinely balanced European dual system, in which private and public service media play their respective roles, independent of political and economic pressure, in promoting democracy, social cohesion and integration and freedom of speech;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the changes in the media world and in communication technologies have redefined the arena of information exchange and the way in which people are informed and public opinion is shaped;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas a vibrant, competitive and pluralistic (audiovisual and written) media landscape stimulates the participation of citizens in public debate, which is essential for a well-functioning democratic system;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas on 16 January 2007 the Commission launched a ‘three-step approach’, comprising a Commission Staff Working Paper on Media Pluralism, an independent study on media pluralism in EU Member States, with indicators for assessing media pluralism and identifying potential risks in the EU Member States (in 2007), and a Commission Communication on the indicators for media pluralism in the EU Member States (in 2008), followed by a public consultation12 ;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas concerns arise in relation to the challenges facing public service broadcastersand private media in terms of editorial independence, staff recruitment, pluralism, neutrality and quality of information, access and funding, caused by undue political and financial interference, as well as the economic crisis;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M a (new)
Recital M a (new)
Ma. whereas the speeding up of the news cycle has led to severe shortcomings of journalists, such as the omission of controlling and double-checking journalistic sources;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Stresses that the protection of journalists’ sources must be absolutely and effectively guaranteed in the legal system of all Member States;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Recalls the Council of Europe's recommendations and declarations, which have been agreed upon by all EU Member States and lay down European standards relating to freedom of expression, press freedom, media pluralism and the independence, organisation, remit and funding of public service media;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 j (new)
Paragraph 4 j (new)
4 j. Welcomes the conclusions of the independent study, conducted at the Commission's request, on defining indicators to measure pluralism of EU media and encourages the Commission to make full use of the Media Monitoring Tool, which applies a broad notion of media pluralism and can identify potential risks for media pluralism in the Member States, and to come forward with recommendations to address those risks;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Reminds the Member States of their commitment to these European standards, and recommends that they provide appropriate, proportionate and stable funding for public service media so as to enable them to fulfil their remit, guarantee political and economic independence and contribute to an inclusive information and knowledge society with representative, high quality media available to all;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4 c. Underlines that the concept of media pluralism cannot be limited to the issue of the concentration of ownership of media companies, but also includes issues related to pressures from political actors and market forces, cultural diversity, the development of new technologies, transparency, media control authorities, and the working conditions of journalists in the Union;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4 d. Stresses the need for the Member States to ensure journalistic and editorial independence by appropriate and specific legal guarantees, and points to the importance of editorial charters to prevent owners, shareholders, and external stakeholders from interfering with news content;
Amendment 69 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Paragraph 4 e (new)
4 e. Stresses that a growing number of journalists are employed under precarious conditions in the absence of social guarantees, and emphasises that the working conditions of media professionals must be improved;
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 f (new)
Paragraph 4 f (new)
4 f. Emphasises the vital role of independent national media regulators in order to safeguard media pluralism and to ensure the objectivity, impartiality and accountability of the media in the Member States and calls on the Member States to intensify the cooperation between national media regulators within the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA) and step up the exchange of experience and best practice in relation to their respective national broadcasting system;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 g (new)
Paragraph 4 g (new)
4 g. Stresses the importance of transparency with respect to the ownership of private broadcasters, which has to be ensured in all Member States, and calls on the Commission to monitor and support progress to this end;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 h (new)
Paragraph 4 h (new)
4 h. Underlines that media reporting should comply consistently with ethical codes; stresses the societal responsibilities a media company carries;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 i (new)
Paragraph 4 i (new)
4 i. Encourages the Commission and Member States in the framework of its media literacy policy to pay sufficient attention to the importance of media education, which must provide citizens with the skills of critical interpretation and selection of the ever growing volume of information;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Member States for the devising of procedures and mechanisms for the selection and appointment of media heads, management boards, media councils and regulatory bodies that are transparent, based on merit and indisputable experience and that ensure professionalism, integrity, independence, consensus across the political and social spectrum and continuilegal certainty, instead of political or partisan criteria in the framework of a spoil system linked to the results of elections or the will of those in power;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. RUnderlines the fundamental role of a genuinely balanced European dual system, in which private and public service media play their respective roles; recalls the important role of the public service media, funded by citizens through the State, and their institutional duties to provide high quality and accurate and reliable information; stresses that the private media have similar duties in relation to information, notablyin particular information of institutional and political nature, in particular on the occasionsuch as in the context of elections, referenda, etc;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Stresses the importance of appropriate, proportionate and stable funding for public service media in order to guarantee political and economical independence, so that public service media may fulfil their full remit - including their social, educational, cultural and democratic role - and that they are able to adapt to digital change and contribute to an inclusive information and knowledge society with representative, high- quality media available to all;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Believes that media ownership and management should be transparent and not concentrated; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure competition so as to address and prevent dominant positions and guarantee the access of new entrants on the market; calls for rules to ensure that conflicts of interest are properly addressed and resolved; highlights that advertising and sponsoring mayshould never cause interference with the editorial line of media;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines the importance of ensuring the independence of journalists, both from internal pressures from editors or owners and externally from political or economic lobbies or other interest groups; highlights the fact that the right of access to documents and information is fundamental and calls for and points at the importance of editorial charters to prevent owners, governments or external stakeholders from interfering with news content; highlights the fact that the right of access to documents and information is fundamental and calls upon the Member states to establish a solid and extensive legal framework with regard to freedom of governmental information and access to public documents; appeals to the Member States to provide legal guarantees regarding the full protection of the confidentiality of sources principle and calls for the strict application of the European Court of Human Rights case-law in this area, including in relation to whistle-blowing; calls for journalists to be protected from threats and violence, as investigative journalists are often threatened as a result of their activities; highlights the need to support and promote investigative journalism and to promote ethical journalism in the media by developing professional standardsurges the Member States and the European Commission to come up with mechanisms to support and appropriate redress procedures; mote independent investigative journalism;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Stresses that an increasing number of journalists find themselves employed under precarious conditions, lacking social guarantees common on the normal job market and calls for an improvement of the working conditions of media professionals;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Emphasizes the need to promote ethical journalism in media; calls upon the European Commission to propose a legal instrument (e.g. by means of a recommendation such as the recommendation of 20 December 2006 on the protection of minors and human dignity and on the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and online information services industry) to ensure that the Member States oblige the media sector to develop professional standards and ethical codes which include the obligation to indicate a difference between facts and opinions in reporting, the necessity of accuracy, impartiality and objectivity, respect for people's privacy, the duty to correct misinformation and the right of reply; this legal framework should foresee the establishment by the media sector of an independent media regulatory authority – operating independently from political or other external interference – that can treat complaints about the press based on the professional standards and ethical codes, and that has the authority to take appropriate sanctions;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Emphasises the growing importance of news aggregators, search engines and other intermediaries in the dissemination and access to information and news content on the internet and calls upon the Commission to include these internet actors in the EU regulatory framework when revising the Audiovisual Media Services Directive in order to tackle the problems of discrimination of content and distortion of source selection;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Encourages the Commission and the Member States – in the framework of the Commission's media literacy policy – to pay sufficient attention to the importance of media education to provide citizens with the skills of critical interpretation and the ability to sift through the ever- growing volume of information;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 c (new)
Paragraph 8 c (new)
8c. Calls on the Commission to check whether the Member States allocate their broadcasting license on the basis of objective, transparent, non-discriminating and proportional criteria;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission to institutionalise EU-level cooperation and coordination on the media, for instance by establishing a European regulators' group for audiovisual media services, and to harmonise the status of the national regulatory authorities provided for in Articles 29 and 30 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and strengthen their role in the next revision of the AVMSD, ensuring that they are independent, impartial and transparent as regards their decision-making processes, the exercise of their powers and the monitoring process, and that they have appropriate sanctioning powers to ensure that their decisions are implemented;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls the Commission and the Member States to ensure transparency in media ownership and to ascertain whether public funds are used efficiently by Member States in relation to the public service media;