23/06/2026 Culture, science, éducation et médias
[En cours de traduction]
A PACE committee has expressed grave concern over growing threats to media pluralism and independence – citing “media capture” by political and economic actors, mounting pressure on public service media, the development of “news deserts” and the dominance of online platforms.
The Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, approving a report by Valentina Grippo (Italy, ALDE), said that the sustainability of media outlets was at great risk, and journalists were increasingly vulnerable to “pressures from powerful news sources and their employers” which impacted investigative journalism and created a climate conducive to both censorship and self-censorship.
In particular, the existence of local, regional and community media has become uncertain in many areas of the EU and this has made it difficult or impossible for citizens to access sufficient, reliable, diverse information about issues of interest regarding these areas.
Council of Europe member states should require national media regulators to monitor pluralism in the audiovisual sector, ensure transparent data on media ownership, introduce rules on the prominence of media of general interest across all platforms, and ensure that the integrity of media services is safeguarded against unfair manipulation by online platforms, the parliamentarians said. Laws which intimidate journalists, including defamation or overly-broad “fake news” or “state secrets” provisions, should be repealed.
Finally, the committee urged a “pan-European database of media ownership in Europe” to provide the public with swift and effective access to information, free of charge.
This report will be debated by the Assembly during its autumn session.