It’s a new day for media freedom in the EU — if it stands up to its autocrats

BRUSSELS — The European Union's new law to preserve press freedom will live or die based on the bloc's willingness to rein in its more authoritarian members.

Lawmakers from the European Parliament gave their final nod to the European Media Freedom Act on Wednesday, a year and a half after the Commission published its proposal to rein in creeping state influence over newsrooms.

The regulation will prohibit EU governments from interfering in editorial decisions and going after reporters to disclose their sources.

It will also force governments to stop meddling with public broadcasters, with clearer rules for picking and firing their management teams and for sustainable and predictable funding — freeing them from the whims of revolving-door governments — and ensuring public money for state advertising is distributed fairly.

The law "will be a major warning signal for member states," Commission Vice President Věra Jourová previously told POLITICO in an interview.

But it will take time — and political courage — for the rules to repair years of infringement on press freedoms.

The usual suspects

The regulation "was intended to address attempts to undermine media freedom by [Hungarian PM Viktor] Orbán, [former Slovenian PM Janez] Janša, and [Poland's former Deputy PM Jarosław] Kaczyński," said one of the negotiators for the law in the Parliament, Slovenian centrist Irena Joveva.

How easily such politicians will fall in line "depends on how deeply they have already captured the state and whether this affects their future grip on power," she added, foreseeing Hungary — where Orbán’s Fidesz party controls 80 percent of the country’s media landscape — as the biggest challenge.

There is a sense of urgency, Joveva warned: "The longer you have authoritarian governments undermining media freedom, the harder it is to undo the damage."

Press freedom advocates like Reporters With Borders welcomed the law — but anticipated a bumpy road ahead.

"Obviously, it's going to be much more difficult in Hungary than elsewhere," the NGO's Brussels bureau head Julie Majerczak said. It's never too late, however, and if anything, the law will prevent Hungary-like situations elsewhere, she stressed.

Slovakia may also become a prime target for the rulebook, as a new draft law put forward by Prime Minister Robert Fico's government seeks to dismantle public broadcaster RTVS and create a new body instead. The incoming Slovak Television and Radio (STaR) will be led by a governing council whose members will be appointed by either the government or the Slovak parliament; the council will then pick — and dismiss at will — STaR's managing director.

"It will be in breach of the future Media Freedom Act when it comes into force, without a doubt," said Richard Burnley, the legal and policy director at the European Broadcasting Union, an alliance of public broadcasters, to which RTVS belongs. Burnley called the draft law a "backward step for the region."

Jourová also called out the Slovak initiative earlier this week. "In every country, there should be a really strong public service media and not a media that will serve as the mouthpieces of the party and the government," she said in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Beyond wishful thinking

The bulk of the new EU law will take effect 15 months after its publication in the Official Journal, which means by the end of 2025.

"The open question is the efficacy of the enforcement, more precisely if the Commission will gather [the] necessary political will to actually start the infringement procedures against member states," the Parliament's Joveva said.

The efficacy of the rules will hinge at first on the good faith of national governments before the EU executive can step in — meaning additional, lengthy procedures that would delay the new obligations in countries that dragged their feet.

"It's not enough to put a piece of legislation on the table, vote on it and then sit back," Majerczak stressed, calling for the next Commission to keep media freedom and its strict enforcement a top priority, with a dedicated vice president in the next mandate to lead the efforts.

"Let's not have a Hungarian or [Slovak] commissioner," she said.