Safeguarding Freedom - Protecting Democracy

The German Media Authorities invited to their yearly one-day conference in Brussels on media regulation issues. Given the regrettably extraordinary developments in the past months, this year’s edition focused on safeguarding freedom and protecting democracy in the media. The recently proposed European Media Freedom Act was another focus of the discussion.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is accompanied by the extensive use of propaganda. The aim of such tactics, meaning the manipulation of the European information space, is to disrupt a democratic, pluralistic, and free European society. Therefore, safeguarding the freedom of expression is crucial in protecting our democratic values from such external and internal threats. How to keep our democracy and a free, pluralistic media landscape well-fortified to cope with these new challenges was a central topic of this year’s edition of “safeguarding freedom”.

The in-person conference focused on mechanisms to protect an independent, free, and pluralistic media landscape whilst ensuring effective enforcement mechanisms capable to cope with violations of law happening in cross-border contexts.

Agenda

Host: Isabelle Körner

Opening

12.30
Arrival and registration

13.00
General Welcome

• Tobias Schmid, Commissioner for European Affairs, German Media Authorities (DLM – DE)

13.05
Opening Remarks

• Marie Frenay, Member of Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová, European Commission

State neutrality of media: a safeguard for well-fortified democracies

13.20
The British state neutrality model

• Maria Donde, Head of International Content Policy, Office of Communications (Ofcom – UK)

13.45
A European Union approach: Media Freedom Act from a regulator’s perspective

• Karim Ibourki, Chair of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), President of the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA – BE)

Regulatory cooperation in practice

14.10   
ERGA’s Memorandum of Understanding and cooperation amongst national regulatory authorities

• Sally Broughton Micova, University of East Anglia (participating remotely)

14.35  
How we tackle new challenges in the online world

• Laura Braam, Team Leader Supervision, Media Authority of NRW (LFM NRW – DE)

15.00  
Coffee Break

Is there a need for improvement?

15.15
Challenges and Future Regulation of Cross-border Audiovisual Content Dissemination

• Mark D. Cole, Director for Academic Affairs, Institute of European Media Law (EMR)

15.45
Panel discussion – How can enforcement become more effective?

• Siada El Ramly, Director General, DOT.Europe
• Petra Kammerevert, Member of the European Parliament
• Heike Raab, State Secretary for Europe, Media and Digital, Rhineland Palatinate (DE)
• Tobias Schmid, Commissioner for European Affairs, German Media Authorities (DLM – DE)

16.45 pm
Closing remarks

• Wolfgang Kreißig, Chair of the Director’s Conference of the German Media Authorities (DLM – DE)

17.00 pm
Get-Together