Spain: RSF welcomes announcement of new press freedom reforms, including compliance with european media legislation (EMFA)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomes the announcement by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on 17 July that the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), whose final version was heavily influenced by RSF, will be enacted in Spain. RSF also calls for this umpteenth announcement promising reforms to the legislation restricting journalistic coverage of protests, known as “gag law,” to be implemented as soon as possible.
When the EMFA was adopted, RSF welcomed it and called on member states to implement these provisions ambitiously. RSF therefore welcomes Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s official announcement, made in Congress, that Spain will implement the European legislation. The law provides for greater transparency in media ownership, sources of funding, private media’s reports on their audience numbers and the public advertising they receive. Additionally, Spain’s Law on Institutional Advertising will be reformed, and the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), the media regulatory body, will be expanded.
"RSF has spent decades years defending many of the measures announced by the prime minister. For years, RSF participated in the European legislative processes that have given birth to these measures, created tools to fight disinformation, and establishing itself as an organisation that defends democracy through the right to information. All transparency is too little and all interference is too great. We will support the government in implementing measures that shed light on our media landscape, but we will always fight any attempt to influence the freedom of the media to choose their own content.
Part of RSF’s longstanding fight against disinformation includes the promotion of systems that make it possible to trace the origins of journalistic information: Years ago, RSF launched the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) an international standard used to certify and reward reliable news outlets. The JTI, explicitly recognized by the EMFA, that will be applied by the Spanish government.
This new EU regulation also includes an explicit mention of the independence and financial sustainability of public media, an important guarantee that RSF feels Sánchez should have included in his speech, given the instability that has plagued the governing bodies of the RTVE, Spain’s public broadcaster, for years. RSF is also missing clarification from the government as to whether it plans to decriminalise so-called “crimes of opinion” (insulting the Crown, offending religious feelings, etc.), and which articles of the gag law (which applies to journalists covering protests) will be subject to reform. RSF has condemned the threat that this law poses to the right to inform and be informed since its adoption and regrets that the coalition government has not yet fulfilled one of its key promises for its first term in office.
Vigilance needed
RSF will closely monitor how this general outline of democratic reforms concerning the media are implemented, and whether they truly respect freedom of the press and the public's right to information at all times. RSF will also be watching to see how the 100 million euros from European funds intended to boost media digitalisation – another part of the president’s announcement – are distributed. It also remains to be specified how defamation laws will be legally reinforced, and to what extent this will affect the media and journalists.
RSF reminds the Spanish government that the EU already has a directive and recommendations aiming for sanctions against those who take abusive legal action against journalists in order to intimidate them, and encourages the government to transpose it into law quickly and ambitiously.
Lastly, RSF calls for a cooperative spirit among all the parliamentary powers mentioned in Sánchez’s announcement and all organisations that defend journalism and civil society, so that the measures to come are the fruit of a solid, informed agreement.
