New and old challenges with the European Media Freedom Act

The European Commission released the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) on 16 September 2022, a regulation offering a unified framework for media services in the internal market. A draft report containing several critical revisions that apply to some regions of the proposal was published by the rapporteur for the Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament (CULT) on 31 March 2023. This proposal addresses fundamental issues at the EU level regarding the exercise of media actors’ and media organisations’ rights to freedom of expression.

The EMFA will be in effect for the insertion, publication, or distribution of State advertising ‘in any media service or online platform that provides media services,’ according to its most recent version. The second sentence could be misunderstood because online platforms do not offer media services, as that term is used in the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Article 17, which addresses internet platforms’ monitoring of media material, continues to be the most perplexing part of the proposal. Article 17 states that extensive online platforms (VLOPs) must allow media service providers to declare their status following the definition in the draft. When a media service provider has demonstrably shown that the content or services in question comply with the Member State’s national law, the provider of a vast online platform may not restrict or suspend the provision of its online intermediation services in relation to that content or service. This provision is especially problematic as it will keep pieces of content that could be misinformation or derogatory on the platforms.