Democracy Digest: Media Freedom and Rule of Law in the Spotlight

Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova, who opened the debate, also expressed concern about developments in the three countries: she explicitly referred to Klubradio, Hungary's last independent station, which lost its broadcasting licence; to Poland's new tax on advertising, which could end up disproportionately hitting independent newspapers; and to "continuous attempts to undermine the sustainable funding and the independence of the national press agency, and frequent verbal attacks against journalists" in Slovenia.

Yet Jourova went on to admit that there is not much that the Commission can do to address those critical developments, other than highlight problematic developments in the new annual Rule of Law Reports. "The reality is, as you know well, that the competences of the Commission when it comes to media are very limited," she told the parliamentarians.

As such, Jourova appealed to the European Parliament to support increasing the toolbox of the Commission to act on protecting journalists' independence, because media outlets are "key players in democratic society", not just "actors on the European Single Market".

Yet critics point out that the Commission is failing to make use even of those limited tools at its disposal. As the International Press Institute (IPI) and 15 other media freedom groups highlighted in a letter they sent to Commissioner Vice-President Margrethe Vestager on February 26, "the Commission's lack of enforcement of market rules in Hungary is not only allowing the situation there to worsen but now also empowering the deliberate distortion of the media market in Poland, with worrying implications for both media freedom and democracy."

The groups criticised the Commission for failing to take action on two state...