EUROPEAN 
MEDIA POLICY

The NGO Civil Liberties warns of rule of law backsliding within the EU, whilst new reports are emerging of threats to media freedom in several European countries. Separately, the EU’s top court has ruled on important issues regarding media and access to EU documents. Read about these and other news in the latest European Media Policy newsletter.

In this issue:

Media freedom

• New report warns of rule of law breaches within EU institutions
• Media freedom groups warn of Italian backsliding
• EU Court criticises Hungary over radio ban

Authors' rights

• EU Parliament report on copyright and AI

Media freedom

New report warns of rule of law breaches within EU institutions

The NGO Civil Liberties’ new “Rule of Law Report” for 2026 identifies a declined respect for the rule of law within the EU institutions. Amongst the concerns expressed are the omnibus proposals by the European Commission, which weaken legislation previously adopted. These include regulation related to digital rights and AI. The report also points to regulation processes being rushed and the EU therefore skipping proper fundamental rights impact assessments. 

Further, the report found that amongst EU member states, there is stagnation concerning the rule of law and that EU recommendations are mostly ignored. Countries that show a particularly worrying erosion of the rule of law are Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia.

When it comes to media freedom, the report concludes only a small number of countries have made “measurable improvements, while most demonstrate stagnation or regression”. Also regarding media freedom, the member states are slow to adapt the commission’s recommendations, and 85% of the 27 outstanding recommendations were first made already in 2022. Civil Liberties points out that among the countries with unimplemented recommendations are traditionally strong democracies such as Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and Ireland. 

Meanwhile, there has been limited progress on the implementation of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) and transposition of the Anti-SLAPP Directive. The organisation will publish a separate report on media freedom in the end of April.

The Civil Liberties Union for Europe is a Berlin-based organisation with 24 member organisations across the EU.

(Liberties Rule of Law Report 2026)

Media freedom groups warn of Italian backsliding

The partner organisations of Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) carried out an advocacy mission to Italy in March and found the media freedom in the country has continued its downward trajectory, with new spyware attacks, politicisation of the public broadcaster, legal harassments of journalists by politicians, and continued concerns over media pluralism. 

Furthermore, the organisations, which include the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom, the European Federation of Journalists, and the International Press Institute, found that Italy is not implementing the new European laws designed to protect journalists. They stress Italy, under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, “appears to be in active violation of the new European Media Freedom Act” regarding the political control over the public broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italian (RAI). Also, the country's transposition of the EU Anti-SLAPP Directive is limited to the minimum and appears unlikely to be implemented by the May 2026 deadline, although Italy was the country in Europe with the highest number of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) in 2025, according to the CASE Coalition.

In addition, the organisations point out that the sale of Italian media group GEDI’s assets (La Stampa and La Republicca), could threaten both journalists’ jobs and editorial independence. The MFRR partners therefore call on the Italian media regulator, AGCOM, to request a media merger assessment from the new EMFA-created European Board of Media Services.

(Italy: MFRR flags ongoing media freedom erosion)

EU Court criticises Hungary over radio ban

On 26 February, the European Court of Justice sided with the European Commission when ruling that Hungary had failed to fulfil its obligations by denying the independent radio station Klubrádió to renews its frequencies in 2021. 

The commercial radio station, which has continued to transmit online, was an opponent of the Orbán government and was denied to renew its licence by Hungary’s media authority. EU Observer reports the judgment was not open to appeal and mandated the European Commission to seek fines from Orbán if he did not allow Klubrádió back on air.

The lawsuit had been supported by Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands. According to EU Observer, Klubrádió stated it would need a retrial in Hungary based on the EU verdict, or to sue for damages in Hungarian courts in order to obtain redress.

(Judges invite EU to fine Orbán for shutting down critical Budapest radio station)

Authors' rights

EU Parliament report on copyright and AI

On 10 March, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding report on copyright and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), calling for a series of measures to protect rights holders and ensure the use of copyright material is fairly renumerated. Among other things, the report:

*  Urges the commission to explore the possibility to safeguard the press and news media sector, “whose services are repeatedly and fully exploited by AI systems”, and to assess and, where appropriate, propose mechanisms ensuring that providers of GenAI models that demonstrably divert traffic and revenue from press and news media outlets compensate such outlets in a fair, proportionate, and non-discriminatory manner, paying particular attention to local and regional media.

 * Urges the commission to create a new licensing system for copyrighted material, including voluntary collective licensing agreements per sector. 

* Calls on the commission to examine whether there is a possible solution for the immediate, fair, and proportionate remuneration for past uses of copyright-protected works by providers of general-purpose AI models and systems, where a licensing market could not yet be established.

* Wants AI providers and deployers to provide an itemised list of all copyrighted works used to train their systems, as well as detailed records of crawling activities for searching information to produce answers.

* Expresses rightsholders should be able to exclude their work from being used in AI training through an opt-out list, which could be managed by the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

* Wants news media outlets whose traffic and revenues are diverted by AI systems to be fully compensated. Outlets should also have the right to refuse use of their content for training AI systems.

* Highlights individuals should be protected from dissemination of manipulated and AI-generated content. The report stresses the obligation of digital service providers to act against such illegal use.

The European Federation of Journalists welcomed the report as “an important sign of political will to strengthen and make fairer the copyright framework protecting journalists from the unauthorised use of their work by AI companies”.

(Report on copyright and generative artificial intelligence)

(EFJ welcomes European Parliament’s call for an EU regulatory framework…)

Disinformation and FIMI

Israeli spy firm accused of interference in Slovenian election

Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the Slovenian parliamentary elections, urging her to investigate accusations that Israeli spy firm Black Cube interfered in the country’s election campaign, reports Politico. In his letter, he wrote such interference by a foreign private company poses “a clear hybrid threat against the European Union and its Member States, which negatively impacts or potentially threatens our common values, procedures and political processes”. 

In the elections, held on 22 March, Golob’s Freedom Movement won 29 seats while right-wing populist Janez Janša’s Slovenian Democratic Party won 28 seats.

Slovenian authorities announced before the elections that four operatives of Black Cube, a private intelligence firm founded by former members of the Israel Defense Forces, had visited the country and conducted “illegal surveillance” and “wiretapping”.

In his letter to von der Leyen, Golob wrote the case should be referred to the EU’s European Centre for Democratic Resilience, which began its operational work in February this year: “this case provides a critical test of its mandate to protect Member States against foreign interference”.

(Slovenia urges EU to probe reports that Israeli spies meddled in election race)

Digital rules

US ambassador to Brussels wants talks on digital rules

The US wants to engage in a meaningful dialogue with Brussels on reducing European tech regulation, according to US Ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, in an interview published by Politico on 23 March.  

Puzder referred to the recent approval by the European Parliament to proceed with the trade deal between the bloc and the US and stated it would “set the scene for talks to loosen constraints on business” and said he has had talks with individuals within the EU about moving the discussion forward.

“Hopefully, we’ll continue to talk. Once this trade agreement is approved, in the spirit of moving forward with these non-tariff trade barriers, we’ll be able to break down some of these walls”, the ambassador said.

Puzder explained that Washington doesn’t think “that Europe shouldn’t have regulation”, but that it shouldn’t be “regulating in such an extreme manner that companies feel they can’t innovate — which is why ... most of the tech startups in Europe end up moving to Silicon Valley”.

The EU’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act have been targeted by US government representatives on several occasions. EU officials have on various occasions stated that EU’s digital rules are not part of trade discussions with the US.

(Let’s talk about your tech rules, Trump envoy tells EU)

EU transparency

EU Parliament push for more openness

The European Parliament took a stance for more openness within EU institutions in a report adopted on 5 March, with 602 votes in favour and only nine rejections. According to the news site Europaportalen, the report states that the rules for EU citizens to access EU documents should be more consistent, and that a bigger number of documents, including those from meetings behind closed doors, should be made accessible proactively. 

The parliament would also like there to be more be effective ways for citizens to appeal against refusals of access to documents.

(EU-parlamentet kräver ökad öppenhet)

Court ruling forces commission to openness

In March, the European Commission lost another legal case concerning access to documents. This time it was not a case of journalists being denied access but the NGO ClientEarth, which in 2021 had requested access to documents revealing the positions and votes by EU countries in closed-door meetings concerning renewed approval of the pesticides cypermethrin and mancozeb.

The General Court of the European Union ruled, on 25 March, that the commission should have granted ClientEarth access to the documents.

The commission had declined, arguing that to do so could put the trust between itself and EU countries “under strain” and “expose a difficult and lengthy decision-making process to further external pressure”. However, the court dismissed this argument, stating “that undermining must be reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical” and ordered disclosure of two out of three categories of the withheld documents. The court upheld the refusal to release the third category, which concerned the pesticide mancozeb, because of pending court proceedings challenging the implementation regulation on mancozeb.

This was the latest of several judgments where the General Court has found the commission has not been sufficiently open concerning access to documents, an issue that media covering the EU has also struggled with.

(Judgment of the General Court)

Further reading...

Almost 30 international organisations raised serious concerns about proposed changes to Lithuania’s public service media law, warning that it risks undermining the independence and sustainability of the public service broadcaster LRT.

(Lithuania: EFJ, IFJ and media organisations raise concerns over proposed changes…)

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About the newsletter
The newsletter European Media Policy provides an update on policy developments at the European level. It concentrates on news from the European Union: current issues and trends in media policy, new proposals for legislation, debates in the European Parliament, recently taken or impending policy decisions and reactions among those concerned, new support programmes, EU studies in the field, etc. There is also some coverage of policy developments in the Council of Europe and at the international level.  

European Media Policy is published with support from the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Editor
Natacha Lópaz, freelance journalist
natacha.lopez@gu.se

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