La Tribune: ‘Media freedom key to Balkans’ European future’
By: Gérard Vespierre, Founder of Le Monde Décrypté
This excerpt has been translated from the original French article.
Russia's battle against European democracies is being waged through a powerful media strategy of disinformation, influencers and social networks. It also includes the creation of Russian companies, television channels or press agencies, or the use of political influence, or even financial facilities, on existing media. In response to this strategy, the European Union has introduced a European regulation on media freedom, but this does not apply to the candidate countries. A fierce battle is therefore being waged in the Balkans to divert these countries from their European orientation.
The conclusions of [the latest report from BFMI] show that the implementation of European regulations concerning the media should be a prerequisite for accession and the payment of European funds.
Such an orientation would be a greater incentive for the supervisory authorities to avoid the slippage of their own regulations, both in media expression and in the transparency of ownership of media organisations…
Free expression represents the necessary predominance of the rule of law, projected into the media universe. Both are the pillars of any democratic structure that intends to remain so.
Particular importance should therefore be attached to this area, and to the media freedom initiative undertaken with regard to the States that have expressed their intention to join the European Union.
