The Committee to Protect Journalists and 14 other civil society groups on Thursday urged the European Parliament to protect the press against undue state influence by ensuring that member countries provide advertising revenue to national media in a fair and transparent way.
The call comes as the European Parliament is concluding its internal negotiations over the draft European Media Freedom Act, which aims to curb the political capture of media by governments or businesses linked to them.
Read the full statement below.
Also read more about press freedom in the European Union, and how state influence has led to unprecedented control of the media in countries like Hungary and Poland, in CPJ’s special report “Fragile Progress.”