media lab | Podcast Season: 2 - Episode: 1 / Release date: 17-1-2023

1:1 with Marius Dragomir
Media and Journalism Research Center

Episode Highlights

00:00 Intro

01:04 Media Freedom Act - How To Fix: (1) Enforcement, (2) Transparency & (3) State Capture

07:45 Outro

Key Quotes

"We have a lot of issues with the independence of national regulatory authorities in some countries in Europe."

1 / 13

"I strongly believe that you need the presence of representatives of civil society organisations, defending the rights of journalists, [academics], and others [on this European Board]"

2 / 13

"What is also very important, is to have a very clear system of rotation (...) on this [European Board] in order not to create a dependence between [regulators] and those who are regulated."

3 / 13

"Why is it important to know who owns the media? (...) For the general public and (...) for the enforcement of the Regulation."

4 / 13

"The current [transparency] mechanisms put forward in the legislation are not sufficient."

5 / 13

"We have to think about a mechanism [to] monitor media ownership that would consist more of neutral, independent organisations and individuals coming for example, from academia."

6 / 13

"A [media ownership monitoring] mechanism that would include [investigative journalists], really able to dig for ownership links, should be created."

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"The problem that we see in many countries is not as we have seen 20 years ago, namely concentration of ownership, but a lot of trends that have to do with financial concentration."

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"I don't think the Act manages to address a key issue[:] cutting the link between state funding and the strings attached to it."

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"We need a set of very specific, as detailed as possible, provisions that, for example, would limit or even cut completely the access of media owners to public procurement."

10 / 13

"We need provisions that would limit as much as possible the ownership of some media owners in other industries that pose problems to their independence."

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"We have to really think about legal provisions that would limit access of individuals with certain connections, especially political [ones], to media ownership."

12 / 13

"The Act is very good on paper, but we really need good detailed provisions to ensure that it will be implemented."

13 / 13

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About Our Guest

Marius Dragomir | Founding Director - Media and Journalism Research Center

Marius Dragomir is the Founding director of the Media and Journalism Research Center, that builds on the work of the Center for Media, Data and Society. The Center is an international think tank focused on the study of media, journalism, politics and technology. Marius is also a professor at the Central European University in Vienna where he teaches journalism and research design courses as well as practical classes on advocacy and policy engagement. Before, he managed the global research and policy portfolio of the Program on Independent Journalism of the Open Society Foundations in London.

Relevant Resources

Report - State Media in 2022: From Worse to Worse

Media and Journalism Research Center

Marius Dragomir

1:1 with Marius DragomirMedia and Journalism Research Center