France, Greece, and Spain

Media landscape and the state of the freedom of media in selected

ENP and EU countries

Media analysis Warsaw 2019

Media landscape and the state of the freedom of media in selected ENP and EU countries Dominik Cagara, Michał Kobosko, Ewa Stasiak-Jazukiewicz, Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Anatoliy Martsynkovskyi, Natalia Moghilda

Editors

Dominik Cagara, Michał Kobosko

Technical editor

Marcin Sobala

Published by

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This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the College of Europe, Natolin and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. Unless otherwise indicated, this publication and its contents are the property of the Natolin Campus of the College of Europe. All rights reserved.

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EU: France, Greece Spain

Prof. dr hab. Ewa Stasiak-Jazukiewicz

The chapter was produced on the basis of case studies. A case study is a qualitative method that allows for an in-depth visualization of a specific, unusual phenomenon and drawing conclusions about its causes and consequences, its features and social determinants1. According to David A. Snow and Leon Anderson, a comprehensive analysis ensures the use of many different research methods and techniques as well as efficient use of the triangulation method, i.e. comparing data from different sources2. The chapter consists of four main parts, four case studies. The first study is a presentation of consumption and trust in the media in France, Greece and Spain, based on the results of social and market research conducted by renowned research centers (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism). The next two studies show the reasons for this level of social trust to media and these are: comparative analysis of media systems in France, Greece and Spain, and identification of restrictions and threats for journalists. The available statistical data was used here, a critical analysis of the rich literature on the subject was carried out, analysis of the areas of regulation of the functioning of the media and journalism (ethical codes), results of institutional analysis of trade unions and journalistic associations were presented, alongside a review of sources monitoring journalists' safety and media freedom (EFJ, IFJ, RSF, AEJ and Article19), from which it follows that journalists are more and more often

1 Wimmer Roger D., Dominick Joseph R. (2008), Mass media: Metody badań, Kraków. 2 Snow David A., Anderson Leon (1991), Researching the Homeless. The Characteristic Features and Virtues of the Case Study, [in:] Feagin, J., Orum, A., Sjoberg, G. (Eds.), A Case for Case Study, Chapel Hill, pp.147 -173.

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subject to verbal and physical aggression, they are threatened with the loss of life, and work is hindered. The last case study concerns the social and political dimension of journalism in France, Greece and Spain. It consists of two perspectives: important for the participants of theoretical training of presenting the rules of information selection process and empirical analysis of the world image, including the picture of the European Neighbourhood Policy stated according to eight selected digital newspapers from France, Greece and Spain. This part was based on content analysis.

Summary and recommendations

Media consumption

 Social life in each of the analysed countries underwent mediatisation manifested by the dominance of borrowed knowledge and the individualization of media use.  In each of the countries analysed, other media act as the main sources of information.  From a rich offer, media users choose content that is in line with their political views. Internet and social media intensify the practice of selective filtration, contributing to the so-called silo effect, which destroys all ideas for broadening media pluralism and consequently strengthens or even deepens social divisions. The number of websites and blogs, including party-affiliated ones, is increasing, such as the Spanish "OK.Diario".  The number of people willing to pay for quality journalism in the online version remains low: at 11percent in France and Spain, and 6 percent in Greece, despite the loss of confidence in information obtained through social media or citizen journalism. It does not change the fact that the number of informative digital newspapers is

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growing, whether in the form of online versions of traditional journals and magazines or new initiatives that are not a continuation of the existing traditional media. In Spain, for example, they had 29.9 million users, in 2017, however ... noteworthy ...: because they are available for free.  In France and Spain, there has been a drop in the use of Facebook, with a concurrent increase in the use of the internet communicator WhatsApp, known for its greater privacy.

Trust in the media

 The widespread tendency of the decline of confidence in the media also applies to the societies of France, Greece and Spain. It is connected with a high level of media polarization, anxiety about untrustworthy or unreliable news (fake news). In addition, in France, in which the election campaign was affected by disinformation and in Spain, where Russian propaganda was active during the crisis in Catalonia, a sense of the threat of inaccurate information increased (Spain - 69%, Greece - 66% and France - 62%). Spaniards (72%) and the French (61%) expect their governments to solve the problem of disinformation.

State of media and journalism

 In each of the countries analysed, the political parallelism of the media is visible, i.e. links between the media and political parties, and the media system reflects the main political divisions in society. Wherein in France, the media, representing various social, political, economic or cultural groups, constitute a forum for political debate, and in Spain and Greece are tools of influence and influence on social attitudes.

 The media image of the world is negative, politicized and fragmented. The image of countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy does not deviate from

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these standards. The analysis of the content of journalistic materials of eight digital dailies from three different countries presenting different political options, carried out for the needs of the report, indicates that the crucial variable that influenced the media image of the world as well as the media image of countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy was the gatekeeper. Another variable, so-called information factors (criterial factors) in each of the analysed titles were the same. In order to obtain the desired image, one should influence the gatekeeper, and more precisely the sources that the media have.

Media consumption and confidence in the media in France, Greece and Spain

Media Consumption

In none of the countries discussed are there any formal technical conditions that would prevent the use of any media. The TV signal provided by analog, cable or satellite ensures coverage of the entire territory of each country. Other conditions are also favorable:  internet access is at the level of 87 percent in France and Spain, and 69 percent in Greece;  15 percent of residents of France and Spain and 12 percent of inhabitants of Greece declared the use of mobile devices to acquire information over last week;  using digital platforms to obtain audiovisual communications (video) in the last week was: 49 percent in France; 73 percent in Greece and 70 percent in Spain;  the declared use of a podcast (online audio or film publication form) in the last month: 28 percent by the French, 22 percent by Greeks and 40 percent by Spaniards;  11 percent are willing to pay for online information in France and Spain, and 6 percent in Greece.

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The main sources of obtaining information in the analysed countries are presented in the table No. 1 (the main source was marked in green).

Table No. 1: The most common sources of information retrieval in France, Greece and Spain in 2018 in percentages. France Greece Spain Television 71 67 76 Digital media 68 94 85 (internet and social media) Print media 20 26 51 Social media 36 71 60 Source: own study based on data from Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2018.

Data from the table confirm that the tastes of Europeans from different countries are different. Only in France, television remains the main source of information. In Spain, and especially in Greece, it has lost its dominant position. It is also important that the main source of information does not have to be a source assessed as trustworthy. Consumption of social media also differs among the citizens of the countries analysed. Only Facebook consistently occupied the position of the leader used to acquire information, despite the loss of confidence in social networks and numerous bank liquidation cases.

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Table No. 2: Consumption of social media in 2018 in France, Greece and Spain in %. Social France Greece Spain networks Informatio All Informatio All Informatio All n informatio n informatio n informatio acquisitio n acquisitio n acquisitio n n n n

Facebook 41 63 60 78 48 75 YouTube 22 51 36 79 26 74 Facebook 10 31 22 58 - - Messeng er Viber - - 14 49 - - Twitter 9 16 13 24 22 39 Snapchat 6 15 - - - - WhatsAp 5 19 - - 36 82 p Instagram - - 10 33 8 35 Google - - - - 5 13 Plus Source: own study based on data from Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2018.

Trust in the media

For several years, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been publishing the Trust in Media annual reports on trust in the media in 33 European countries. Radio has been the most trusted media source of Europeans for years. In

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2017, 59 percent of Europeans indicated this medium, then TV - 51%, press - 47%, internet - 34%, and social media - only 20%. Contrarily, Europeans do not trust social media - 62 percent, the Internet - 51 percent, press - 47 percent, television - 45 percent. and radio - 34 percent. While confidence in traditional media increases, new media (internet and social networks) is losing social credibility. The reasons should be seen in the disinformation spreading there, the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, which testifies to the irresponsible treatment of platform users, and numerous accounts of Russian troll activity during election campaigns in France, the Netherlands and Germany. The data given is the European average. This is different in individual countries. Trust in the analysed media was at the level of 56 percent in France, and 52 percent in Spain and Greece. Most often, radio is the most trustworthy, for 56 percent of French, 52 percent of Spaniards and 44 percent of Greeks. Television was indicated as a reliable medium by 36 percent of respondents from France and Spain and only 22 percent from Greece. Perhaps for this reason, in this country television is not on the podium of the list of media consumption. The print media is trusted by 50 percent of French, 40 percent of Spaniards and 33 percent of Greeks surveyed. Internet communication is trustworthy for: 42 percent of Greeks, 34 percent of Spaniards and 25 percent of French. Social networks are trusted by 27 percent in Greece, 22 percent in Spain, and 8 percent France, and regardless of that, it is still used to obtain news and information. These data confirm the general regularity, unlike users from France or Spain, Greeks prefer non-traditional media. This is the result of the strong political polarization of the society that occurred during the financial crisis and searches corresponding to these media preferences.

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Which specific media entities do the French, Greeks and Spaniards trust? According to research carried out in 2018 by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism3, users retain far-reaching reticence.

Table No. 3: Trust in specific media entities expressed in point, where 0 means "not trustworthy at all" and 10 is "completely trustworthy". France Greece Spain media entities evaluation media entities evaluation media evaluation entities Le Monde 6,47 Kathimerini 5,99 Antena 3 6.08 France 6,10 Real news 5,87 LaSexta 6.06 Télévisions news L'Express 6,04 Alpha news 5,86 El PaÌs 5,94 Le Point 5,99 in.gr 5,85 Cadena SER 5,92 Le Figaro 5,98 Ant1 news 5,76 Eldiario.es 5,89 L'Obs 5,96 To Vima 5,73 El 5,85 Confidencial Le Parisien 5,95 Efimerida ton 5,70 Cuatro 5,84 Sintakton BFM TV 5,90 news247.gr 5,56 El Mundo 5,84 Mediapart 5,89 SKAI news 5,49 20 Minutos 5,78 Libération 5,87 newsit.gr 5,44 El Periodico 5,76

3 Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2018; online, URL: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/digital-news-report-2018.pdf, (October 2018).

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M6 News 5,86 Star news 5,36 La 5,61 Vanguardia TF1 News 5,84 Newsbomb.gr 5,26 TVE 5,54 20 minutes 5,79 Proto Thema 5,24 ABC 5,41 Le HuffPost 5,69 ERT news 5,19 COPE 5,32 Brut 5,28 tro-ma-ktiko 4,73 Telecinco 5,25 Source: own study based on data from Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2018.

The recorded decline in the level of social trust in the media is partly due to problems affecting the media, such as: their shrinking autonomy and economic independence (the dominant position of media belonging to large media groups, tabloidization of content accompanying commercialization) and political (especially regarding public media), and the falling the level of professionalism of journalists (resulting from the crisis but also from modern technologies). All these problems are known to the media systems of France, Greece and Spain.

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Comparative analysis of media systems in France, Greece and Spain

Characteristics of the media systems in France, Greece, and Spain

I define the media system as formal and informal social groups involved in the process of creating and disseminating information and the social norms regulating these activities4. Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini distinguished three models of media systems operating in democratic political systems: liberal, democratic corporatism and polarized pluralism, based on four criteria: 1. development and structure of the media market; 2. forms and levels of political parallelism; 3. the role of the state and 4. the development of journalistic professionalism5. The media systems of France, Greece and Spain are included in the model of polarized pluralism (otherwise known as Mediterranean) characterized by low rates of readership of the press, a high degree of political polarization, instrumental journalism and strong state intervention both in the organization of the media system and the functioning of individual media. According to the authors of "Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 - Results"6, these systems are struggling with the politicization of public media (Greece and Spain), low journalistic professionalism (Greece), low level of journalistic autonomy (Greece, Spain and on a medium level France) and high level of media ownership concentration, despite the existing regulations counteracting the phenomenon. Political parallelism of the media, connections of media circles (owners and journalists) with political forces and political clientelism are the result of the ongoing

4 Stasiak-Jazukiewicz Ewa (1992), Prasa niemiecka w latach 1949-1989, Warszawa, p. 6. 5 Hallin Daniel C., Mancini Paolo (2007), Systemy medialne. Trzy modele mediów i polityki w ujęciu porównawczym, Kraków. 6 CMPF, Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 – Results; online, URL: http://cmpf.eui.eu/media-pluralism- monitor/mpm-2016-results/#jump-to-download, (October 2018).

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internal political struggle in countries that entered the path of democratic development in the mid-1970s - Greece (1974), Spain (1975) and the habits of the political elites there to instrumentally use the media in the process of political communication. An important feature of the media system is the pluralism of media ownership forms. In the analysed countries, all - private, social and state - are legally permissible. However, the latter form has not appeared since the 1980s, except for the media addressed to foreign broadcasters. In addition, in France, Loi Léotard prohibits the party ownership of electronic media. In the era of digitization, podcasts and social media, this ban has lost its importance, and is anachronistic, similar to election silence. Party websites effectively use various forms of communication, and networks and social platforms at any moment give politicians the opportunity to reach the recipient either by means of sound or image. However, it is not for this reason, that the Greek media law of 2007 allows the functioning of radio stations belonging to political parties represented in the parliament without licenses. Rather, it is an expression of the traditional politicization of the media. The media's property is aligned directly with the degree of its concentration in the media. The countries in question are characterized by a high degree of ownership concentration. In each country, this process takes place on all levels - starting from horizontal concentration, consisting in the merging of media entities of one kind, for example radio stations; through vertical concentration, manifested by taking over various stages of media production and distribution, for example one company controls a sawmill, paper mill, printing house, newspapers and kiosks selling them; after cross-focusing, running on several media markets simultaneously. It is the most dangerous thing from the point of view of its control and limitation and due to the possibility of such media groups’ influence on public opinion. In each of the countries analysed, there are examples of any form of concentration of media

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ownership. Moreover, media groups operating on local markets are of an international character.

Media markets in France, Greece and Spain

Each of the countries surveyed has an extensive media market - different types of media meet the different needs of users. In addition to traditional mass media (press, radio, television) there are new, interactive media (internet, mobile and social media), created both by traditional media and professional journalists, as well as amateurs or so-called civic journalists. They are user-oriented. They have a rich, personalized offer corresponding to the various needs of their recipients and provide a sense of personal contact with other users. The passive consumer of traditional media offers the possibility of anonymous creation of media coverage and basically with impunity to comment on the creativity and behaviour of others. Anonymity is seen as the main cause of the spread of the hostile and aggressive way of speaking about others (hate), and the development of cybercriminals and sowers of disinformation (fake news). In the media systems of the analysed countries, regional and local ones develop alongside national media. They are especially appreciated by political scientists for their "contribution" to the development of civil society, because of the undeniable participation in shaping social capital, called by Putnam the key to maintaining democracy7. In the case of local newspapers, their circulation is higher than those achieved by national titles. For example, according to data published by the Alliance pour les chiffres de la presse et des médias (ACPM), the organization certifying the circulation of French newspapers and magazines, the regional "Ouest-

7 Putnam Robert D., Leonardi Robert, Nanetti Raffaella Y. (1994), Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton.

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France" in 2017-2018, despite the decrease in comparison to the measurement from the previous year by 2.43 percent, sold an average of 659 681 copies. However, the largest nationwide daily newspaper, "Le Figaro", by half less - 308 953 copies, despite the increase to the previous year by 0.72 percent8. Local and regional media, especially the press, have strong historical connotations, are the resultant of systemic solutions adopted in particular states, as in the case of federal Spain with strongly developed regionalism. They also result from socio-economic conditions that determine the geography of publishing centers. The economic and financial crisis in France, Greece and Spain was felt the hardest in the printed media. There have been spectacular falls of individual press titles, as in the case of the free Spanish daily "ADN". Those remaining on the market sell much less, limit the frequency of publishing (the Spanish free daily newspaper "Qué!" has changed into a weekly newspaper) or only appear in a digital version, like the Spanish newspaper "Público". This is accompanied by redundancies of editorial employees. For example, in 2013, 129 employees were dismissed in the editorial office of the Spanish daily "El Pais" and the remaining salaries were reduced by 8%9. A similar event took place in 2017 - the owners of "ABC" signed a contract with employees to lower their salaries by 7% for a period of three years, up to and including 2019. At the same time, there was a third so-called period of voluntary dismissals. As a result, about 20 employees leave the editorial office without any

8 APCM (2018), Classement diffusion presse quotidienne nationale 2017-2018; online, URL: https://www.acpm.fr/Chiffres/Diffusion/La-Presse-Payante/Presse-Quotidienne-Nationale, (October 2018). 9 Seguín Bécquer, Faber Sebastiaan (2015), Por qué los medios españoles son los peores de Europa y qué se está haciendo para mejorarlos, ctxt.es 16.09.2015; online, URL: https://ctxt.es/es/20150916/Politica/2242/prensa-periodismo-censura-ley-mordaza-El-Pais-El-diario- Infolibre.htm, (October 2018); Yunquera Nieto Juan (2016), Revistas y diarios digitales en España. Historia de una evolución, Barcelona.

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protests annually10. Bernard Poulet, a French journalist and media condition analyst, was looking for a correlation between the fall of the dailies and the exhaustion of the concept of civilization11. Those advertisers chasing after the readers have tried to substitute by renting fixed columns to social organizations or readers. Not always with the expected result. Representatives of civil society are developing their own communication channels - alternative media that enjoy greater trust of individual communities than the mainstream media. They are created on the basis of crowdfunding, i.e. financing with small payments made by interested persons, for example readers. In the countries analysed for this study, there are examples of such new media operations, such as the French investigative portal "Mediapart", the Greek "ThePressProject" and the subscribed website inside.story.gr, as well as the Spanish eldiario.es and "El Español".

France The French "Mediapart" investigative portal, which has been operating since 2008, is fully funded by subscriptions of readers (110 euros per year, 50 euros for students, retirees and the unemployed or people on low incomes). For 140,000 subscribers and 3 million users monthly, the editorial staff consisting of 80 journalists alongside the main portal runs an English-language website, a club - a free readers' forum and FrenchLeaks, a website for whistleblowers distributing documents dealing with issues relevant to the public interest. As the editors emphasize on the website, "it provides the public with free access to documents that have been investigated by

10 Cano Frenando (2017), El diario ABC pacta su nuevo convenio colectivo con una rebaja salarial del 7%, “El Español” 21 diciembre; online, URL: https://www.elespanol.com/economia/medios/20171221/diario-abc-nuevo-convenio-colectivo-rebaja- salarial/270973669_0.html, (October 2018). 11 Poulet Bernaed (2009), La fin des journaux et l’avenir de l’information, Paris 2009.

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Mediapart journalists" and "allows sources to send (...), with full security and confidentiality, public interest documents that will be posted on the Internet after preliminary investigation that meets the professional principles of journalism." Mediapart's merits include several scandals revealed on the French political scene, such as Cahuzac's scandals, the then finance minister ultimately convicted by a final court judgment for tax fraud and the affairs of Denis Baupin, vice president of the French National Assembly, and Green deputy accused of sexual harassment.

Greece „ThePressProject” is an international initiative operating within the BitsnBytes IT company, and was established in 2010. The website publishes political analyses and investigative reports, often being the result of international journalistic cooperation. In addition to the website "ThePressProject", it prepares radio and television programs. TPP is funded by subscriptions of readers (from 5 euros per month), from 2015 forming a community called Platform 1101.

Spain The online newspaper eldiario.es was founded in 2012 by Ignacio Escolar, a journalist and blogger, the founder of the daily Público. eldiario.es is a limited partnership, in which over 70 percent of shares belong to the editorial staff. Also included in the shareholders are experts in communication and media who contributed to the initial capital of the venture. 5 euros per month guarantees that every willing reader belongs to the newspaper community. In 2017, this provided 35% of the funding. Access to the content is free. The newspaper keeps up with advertisements and small contributions from its social members. A record interest in crowdfunding financing was obtained by "El Español", which in

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just two months collected EUR 3.6 million from 5,624 subscribers. This digital newspaper was created in 2015. It was founded by Pedro J. Ramirez, co-founder and former journalist of "El Mundo".

Among new media initiatives there are representatives of extreme views. They answer the social demand. One of the examples of this type of media is the Greek Sunday newspaper "Proto Thema", founded in 2005 by three journalists Makis Triandafyllopoulos, Themos Anastasiadis and Tassos Karamitsos. In 2008, its daily digital version of protothema.gr was launched. The newspaper is known for its populist orientation and inciting hatred towards immigrants, which does not change the fact that it is one of the most popular Sunday newspapers selling over 200,000 copies. The popularity of the paper version prompted the founders to run a journal with the same name in a digital version. The possibility of obtaining additional income was also tempting here. The newspaper has been repeatedly criticized by the largest Greek association of ESIEA journalists for lack of objectivity, political propaganda, the publication of erotic photos and for the creation of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. The improving economic situation does not stabilize the publishing market. In Greece, some newspapers still fall, in others the owners change. And this is due to the second factor, permanently degrading the position of the press on the media market - changes in the culture of media use. Young consumers of the offer of the media are moving away from traditional media, especially print media. Digital releases, e-newspapers or news portals, blogs of journalists and forums of readers are the means to offset this variable. In France and Spain, these threats also exist, although the media entities there have better financial conditions, facilitating effective adaptation to new conditions. And the recipients are more likely to pay for the quality journalism delivered to them online. Already, most French and Spanish dailies charge a small fee (1 euro) for one-time access to content. The ideal solution is

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subscribers, which for example, the American "The New York Times" has had for years, and which has already reached the number of one million digital subscribers or the Brazilian "O'Globo", with 50,000 subscribers. Greek recipients of media messages will not pay for access to content. This type of payment is accepted by only 6 percent of society. The digital offer of traditional media is accepted by recipients, as evidenced by the level of their consumption. In the ranking of the 50 most-visited Internet sites in France run by Médiamétrie in 2018, there were also information portals for traditional media, including: dailies - leFigaro.fr, Le Monde.fr, leParisien.fr., Free 20minutes.fr., Sports L 'EQUIPE.fr. and regional ouest-france.fr.; the initiative of the public broadcasters franceinfo and the website of private television BFM TV. Of course, the first three places belonged to the giants, in turn: Google (with 50 million users), Facebook (with 26 million users), YouTube video hosting service (23.9 million). There were also Orange, Free and SFR telecom operators' sites, free classifieds site Leboncoin.fr, Yellow Pages12. In France, the relatively good condition of the publishing market, in particular the daily press, is also the result of the functioning of the extended subsidy system, helping media, which otherwise would lose its competitive struggle, remain on the market. It covers all journals and part of magazines addressed to young people with educational values. In the budget act for 2017, EUR 127.84 million was allocated to aid for the media. There were: 5 million euros for new media entities (Le Fonds de soutien à l'émergence et à l'innovation dans la presse); 16 million for the regional and local press (Les aides concourant au maintien du pluralisme); 9.8 million for network information agencies; 1.58 million for information Community media (Fonds de

12 Médiamétrie (2018), Audience Internet Global en France en Septembre 2018; Ball Yannick (2018) Top 50 des sites web de marques les plus visités en France : découvrez le classement de février 2018; online, URL: https://www.phonandroid.com/top-50-sites-web-plus-visites-france-decouvrez- classement-fevrier-2018.html, (October 2018).

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soutien aux médias d'information sociale de proximité); 4 million for subsidies for the modernization of the press distribution network (Les aides à la diffusion (aides directes) and approximately EUR 60 million for direct press support13. The amount of subsidies for individual titles varies, depending on the circulation and space for advertising, the upper limit is the cap of 10% of the yearly costs of maintaining the title. In Spain and Greece there is no state support for printed media. The 1984 bill, modeled after the French Act, on Assistance for the Spanish Press, was repealed after four years. Subsidies are granted at the regional level to the media with educational and cultural values. A Basque law of April 17, 1997 amended on July 20, 2011, grants subsidies to educational media addressed to children and the media conducting a pro-health information campaign. The Catalan law of October 16, 1995, amended on July 6, 2011, allows subsidizing media promoting the Catalan language. Similar provisions are contained in the Galician regulations of September 19, 1996, amended on February 9, 2011. In the years 2008-2014, the Basque government allocated a total of 24 million euros to subsidies for one hundred media entities. At that time, 50 media were subsidized in Galicia in the amount of 14 million euros. In 2016, the Catalan government gave 100 digital media subsidies in the amount of 1.5 million euros and 4 million for 202 paper versions of newspapers, while the division into digital and analog media allows for duplication of aid14.

13 Le Fonds stratégique pour le développement de la presse; online, URL: http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Thematiques/Presse/Aides-a-la-presse/Le-Fonds- strategique-pour-le-developpement-de-la-presse-aides-directes/1.-Presentation-du-Fonds-strategique- pour-le-developpement-de-la-presse2, (October 2018).

14 Campos Christian (2017), 12 horas ingiriendo prensa catalana subvencionada: "España no es una democracia , “El Español” 25 octubre; online, URL: https://www.elespanol.com/espana/politica/20171024/256725403_0.html, (October 2018).

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There is no form of support for print media in Greece. They are fighting to keep the audience interested. And what's fascinating, with a significant supply of demand over time, new media entities are still appearing on the market. In 2016, the Spanish government supported the press with paid advertising. In the public sector an advertising budget in 2017 of 35 million euro was allocated to the print media15. This form of help is criticized because there are no permanent, well- known rules for their granting. This creates the danger of discretionary subsidizing of media favourable to the authorities. The media is different from other business ventures in that they have two types of profitability - like any company's economic viability and the rare profitability of influence. The history of journalism and media proves the importance of the latter, at first glance, difficult to measure. The assumption that institutions or governments supporting the media will give up the use of this rare feature may be controversial. Theoreticians are discussing the legitimacy of media subsidies. There are two opposing views on the impact of public intervention in the media industry. The first is based on the theory of public service and states that the government is obliged to support the diversity of opinions and mitigate the consequences of a free-market game leading to the collapse or takeover of less-efficient newspapers16. The second one, negatively evaluates state intervention in market law, fearing the use of subsidies to build government-friendly media17. Contemporary opponents stress that it distorts the mechanisms of the free market, and supporters believe that although it

15 Cano Frenando (2018), El sector público vuelve a salir al rescate de la prensa en papel, “El Español” 8 enero; online, URL: https://www.elespanol.com/economia/medios/20180108/sector- publico-vuelve-salir-rescate-prensa-papel/274973165_0.html, (October 2018). 16 Gitlin Todd A. (2002), Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives, Berkeley; Herman Edward S., Chomsky Noam (2002), Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Pantheon; Gamble Adam, Watanabe Takesato (2004), A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West. 17 Wolf Mauro (1994), Los Efectos Sociales De Los Media, Barcelona.

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may distort competition conditions, it allows for the realization of socially important goals.

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Table No. 4: Media markets in France, Greece and Spain in 2018. Basic figures. Type of media Country Figures 1 2 3 Dailies France approx. 100 daily newspapers, including: 8 nationwide newspapers; 63 regional and local; 26 free dailies such as "20 Minutes" or "Direct Matin". Greece 2 nationwide newspaper dailies; 8 national sports dailies; 4 nationwide economical newspapers; nearly 250 local and regional newspapers. Spain approx. 100 newspapers: 75 general-interest newspapers, including 4 nationwide; 5 sporting dailies; 3 economic newspapers and one free paper Sunday France 52 newspapers Greece 6 nationwide papers Spain - Magazines France 272 magazines, 168 regional weeklies; 94 specialist journals; 14 magazines of well-known brands, such as Air France Greece Approx. 120 magazines Spain No data Radio France public Radio France with seven nationwide programs; addressed to a foreign recipient of Radio France Internationale; private radio stations: Europa 1, RTL, Next Radio and NRJ; several hundred local radio stations

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Greece over 900 radio stations; only public broadcasters are nationwide - ERT with seven national programs, one foreign and 21 local and regional broadcasters Spain national: public RNE; commercial - Cadena SER, Cadena COPE, Onda Cero and esRadio Television France 584 available stations, including: public France Television with seven nationwide channels (until 2022 two of them are to be abolished by the decision of E. Macron); private nationwide stations: TF1, BFM TV, M6; pay-TV Canal + Greece three public ERT channels - ERT1, ERT2 and ERT3; nationwide private: (in 2016, a tender for seven national licenses was announced, six submitted) MEGA, Skai TV, ANT 1, Alpha; Star and Open TV (until 2018 under the name Epsilon TV); On October 28, 2018, the terrestrial broadcast of MEGA was discontinued. The channel broadcasts on pay-TV platforms, as well as via online streaming from its website. private pay TVs Nova and OTE TV; about 150 local and regional television stations. Spain nationwide: a public RTVE corporation with five nationwide channels; private stations - belonging to the Atresmedia group (Antena 3, La Sexta, Neox, Nova, Mega) and to Mediaset Spain (Telecinco, Cuatro, Fabryka Fiction, Boing, Divinity, Energy, Be Mad TV); regional channels: public TVE3 and about 900 private

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and municipal Information France information portals of traditional media; paid Mediapart portals Greece over 1000 information services; over 10,000 websites and blogs and blogs; information portals of traditional media; paid Insidestory.gr; blogs: Kouti tis Pandoras, TV Xoris Synora, The Press Project, Aixmi, Anti News. Spain from among 755 information portals dominates the portals offered by traditional press, such as the newspapers Elmundo.es and ElPaís.com; there are also new digital only ventures, such as ElConfidencial.com or Ctxt; blogs: Xataka Social France WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn Facebook networks Greece Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn Spain WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Source: own study based on: Ramón Salaverría Aliaga, María del Pilar Martínez- Costa Pérez, James Breiner (2018), Map de los cibermedios de España in 2018: análisis cuantitativo, "Revista Latina de Comunicación Social" 73, pp. 1034 – 1053.

Additionally, the markets of electronic media in France, Greece and Spain are not growing without any problems. In the best condition are the French and Spanish (Table No. 4) dominated by economically strong entities. The Greek market did not develop mainly due to the lack of statutory resolutions. Even though tenders have been cancelled and withdrawn, the offers have not been depleted, and existing stations, broadcasting without a license, have slowed down its development. In 2017, the National Radio and Television Council (NCRTV) auctioned 7 licenses and 6 parties showed some interest. The following private stations operate: Antenna TV,

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Alpha TV, "E" TV, Epsilon, SKAI TV, Star. The situation of the oldest private TV channel Mega Channel is not clear - since mid-2016 it has been in bankruptcy and is negotiating a loan with banks, and 500 employees have not been paid a salary for many months. In each of the analysed countries, the credibility of the public broadcaster is being questioned, with the main argument being against financing it from social funds. Regularly conducted surveys of public opinion confirm a close correlation between the political independence of public broadcasters and social trust in these media. One of the measures of independence of a public broadcaster is the manner of appointing management boards and other internal control bodies. Kevin Williams, an outstanding British media expert, distinguishes three models of the functioning of European public media: 1. a system of formalized media autonomy, in which there are mechanisms that make the public broadcaster independent of the state authority; 2. a model of "media policy", in which representatives of major political parties and related environments sit on the management boards of public media; 3. "politics over the media policy", in which the state administration has a decisive voice when appointing the management of public broadcasters and the government can directly intervene in the program policy18. Using the Williams criteria, public TV in Greece, Spain and France should be included in the "politics over the media policy" model. They are strongly dependent on the state. The General Assembly of the French television public broadcaster, France Télévisions (FT), consists of representatives of the State, the sole shareholder of the company. It is chaired by the president of the company, appointed

18 Williams, Kevin (2008), Media w Europie, Warszawa, p. 65.

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by the French regulator of audiovisual media Conseil Supérieur d'Audiovisuel (CSA). The next governing body, the Board of Administrators (Le Conseil d'administration), consists of two MPs appointed by committees dealing with cultural affairs of the National Assembly and the Senate respectively; five state representatives; five independent persons appointed by the CSA, one of which must be represented by consumer defence associations approved at national level and two by representatives of FT staff. The President of FT, since 2013, has been appointed by the President of the Republic, with the consent of the CSA, in the absence of objections from the Culture and Education Committee of the National Assembly and the Senate Committee on Culture, Education and Communication. Decisions on the development of a public broadcaster are made by the President of France. Recently, he decided to limit the number of channels, underwriting said decision as a means to minimize financial losses. The Greek public broadcaster ERT is subordinate to the government. This is evidenced by the fact that only by the government's decision it was closed in 2013 and also by the decision of the government (already different) in 2015, its functioning was restored. The Greeks, just as they had perceived the ERT, as the source of patron's jobs for political parties, still perceive it that way. The Spanish public television RTVE is more autonomous, but since just recently. In 2018, for the first time in its history, the supreme governing body - the board of directors - was selected through a public tender. 17 experts indicated by the mixed control committee of the Congress and Senate, selected candidates from among 101 registered applications to chair the corporation. Until now, members have been agreed on by parliamentary groups. The Board of Directors was a kind of reflection of forces in the parliament.

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Restrictions on media freedom and threats for journalists in France, Greece and Spain

The main functions of the media in the democratic system are: information (the media are guarding the openness of public life), controlling (the media protect citizens against the abuse of economic and political elites) and organizing public debate (they indicate problems bothering society and prevailing views on how to solve them) . The threat to the proper implementation of these functions is the concentration of media ownership, media connections with political elites and limiting journalistic autonomy.

Concentration of media ownership as a restriction of media freedom

On the French market, most media entities belong to large industrial or commercial conglomerates. Bernard Arnault, the cosmetics industry giant LVMH (friend of President Macron), has, among others, the dailies "Les Echos" and "Le Parisien". Altice, an international telecommunications corporation operating in Israel, the USA, the Dominican Republic, Portugal and France, is the publisher of the "L'Express" and "Libération" daily newspapers. It also has Numericable cable television. Bolloré, an international transport group, present in the automotive industry and energy distributor is 60 percent shareholder in Havas and from July 2018, 25 percent shareholder of the media giant Vivendi. In 2017 Vivendi employed 55 thousand people around the world, and its turnover amounted to EUR 18 billion. In December 2017, Canal +, a member of the group, was accused of promoting the Togolese Republic (Togo), in which Bolloré's companies had made large investments. Another media giant is the Bouygues industrial group, operating in the construction sector and the main shareholder of the largest private TV station TF1. The presence of Lagardère, a holding company operating in the automotive and

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aerospace industries, a shareholder of the European space agency and aviation EADS should also be emphasized. It is the owner of 13 press titles, including "Elle" and "Paris Match" and 80 others around the world, 26 radio stations and 17 television stations. Such high concentration leads not only to conflicts between the editor and the owner, threatening editorial independence, but also to the conflict with media that are not part of the industrial giant, even threatening the economic security of these media. The Bolloré Group and one of its partners, the Socfin holding company in Luxembourg, have filed more than 20 complaints against the media in recent years. Media bashing, which is an acute, unjustified criticism of the media, is a popular phenomenon by public figures. French journalists are afraid to criticize their owners and their economic moves. They are also cautious about some important economic or social issues, such as tax increases. In Greece, the media is owned by several magnates. One of them is Giannis Alafouzos. The power of his media group began to build from the purchase in 1989 of the SKAI 100.3 radio news station. Later, he founded a TV station with the same name - SKAI TV. He has two other radio stations - Melody 99.2 and SPORT FM 94.6 as well as digital information portals such as skaikairos.gr and sport-fm.gr. He publishes the daily 'I Kathimerini' in two language versions - Greek and English and the Sunday newspaper 'Kathimerini tis Kyriakis'. Evangelos Marinakis, owner of Greek Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest English football clubs, has Dimosiografikos Organismos Lambraki (DOL). It includes: the Sunday newspaper "To Vima tis Kyriakis", the two oldest Greek dailies "Ta Nea" and To Vima, as well as the popular information portal in.gr. The company's portfolio also includes magazines and Vima FM radio. In September 2016, Marinakis, through his company Alter Ego Media S.A., won one of the four national TV licenses auctioned in Greece, after the release of EUR 73.9 million in a very unusual bidding process. However, the license was annulled on October 26, 2016, because the TV License Act of the Minister of

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State Nikos Pappas was declared unconstitutional. DOL has 22 percent of shares in the Mega Channel TV station. Since 2010, Marinakis has been prosecuted several times on charges of bribery and drug trafficking. In March 2018, the Supreme Court cleared Marinakis from the charges. The next Greek media magnate is Ivan Savvidis. Pegasus, which belongs to him, publishes the daily “Ethnos” and the Sunday newspaper “Ethnos Kyriakis”. The Spanish media market is dominated by four international multimedia concerns: Atresmedia, Mediaset España, Prisa and Vocento. Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, is present in the television (stations Antena 3, laSexta., Neox, Nova and Mega) radio (Onda Cero, Europa FM and Melodía FM) and film industries. Established in 1989, Mediaset España Comunicación, S.A is the largest television network in Spain. It has stations: Telecinco (in which the majority stake belongs to Mediaset S. Berlusconi), Cuatro, LaSiete, FactoríaDeFicción, LaNueve, CNN + and CincoShop. 51 percent of shares of the PRISA Group belongs to the American Liberty Acquisitions Holdings. The group publishes, inter alia, the daily "El Pais" and has the most popular radio Cadena Ser. The Vocento group includes over 120 media companies. It is the largest publisher of regional press. It also owns nationwide dailies, including "ABC". French journalists are protected from the demands of their owners by a clause of conscience (Brachard's law establishing the professional status of a journalist), which allows refusal to prepare material in which they would have to express views that are incompatible with their beliefs, while also protecting them against dismissal. In addition, the law provides for the possibility of a journalist's voluntary departure from the editorial office in the event of a "significant change in the orientation" of the paper while retaining the right to compensation in the amount of one month's payment for each year worked. Similar financial benefits are foreseen for a journalist leaving because of a change in the owner of the paper or magazine (assignment

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clause). Editors' employees, on the other hand, have no influence on the appointment and dismissal of the editor-in-chief. These regulations, however, do not guarantee the independence of journalists who censor their own materials or are subjected to pressure from corporations or media owners. As an example of this type of impact, the Bolloré Group may refuse to publish a text on the intervention of police officers towards Roma, under the pretext that it may be particularly unpleasant for the French or the lack of information on accusations against Serge Dassault for buying votes in the titles issued by his company. Greek or Spanish journalists do not have such legal safeguards.

Media relations with political elites

Big business is close to politics, especially in the analysed countries. That is why transparency of media ownership is important. It prevents political corruption, non-transparent privatizations and media takeovers, disseminates knowledge about the media environment, and finally, gives the average media recipient an instrument to critically evaluate the content of media messages. In France and Spain, disclosing the media composition of a media enterprise is a legal obligation. In Greece there are examples of media whose owners are not disclosed, such as the "Proto Thema" newspaper. The links between the media and political elites are also more direct. Some of the Greek, Spanish and even French media companies have direct connections with parties and politicians. Even when there are no organizational connections, large corporations are mainly guided by political interests. This is the practice in each of the analysed countries. In France, such an example is Serge Dassault (Serge Bloch), the owner of the Dassault Group operating in the armaments industry (including the Rafale fighter aircraft manufacturer), a Republican Senator (LR) and the owner of the Le Figaro

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daily, magazines and websites. Another example is Jean-Michel Baylet, who heads the group issuing, among others, regional dailies "La Dépêche du Midi", L'Indépendant", and the sport bi-weekly "Midi olympique". Baylet, a deputy, senator in several terms, and additionally minister in 1990-1993 and 2016-2017 was associated with the Radical Left Party. President Emmanuel Macron in the election campaign of 2017, was openly supported by the liberal business paper "Les Echos" and the business TV station BFM TV political. Media owners avoid confrontation with politicians. This is not always successful, as exemplified by the freezing of the assets of the publisher of the Athens Review of Books, as a result of a defeated trial for defamation against the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias, whose communist past has inadvertently reminded readers. A similar experience was had by the director of the Parapolitika newspaper, Panayiotis Tzenos, who was brutally arrested after being sued by the Greek defense minister Panos Kammenos. At this point, one should mention the next problem - the growing hostility of politicians towards the media. In 2017 in France, the conservative presidential candidate François Fillon, accused of corruption, attacked the media and journalists. This is not the only case like this. Published in April 2018, the Freedom of Media Index (PFI) was titled "Hatred for journalism threatens democracy". Pressures on media owners and hatred for journalists are not the only actions that politicians play against the media. It is particularly dangerous to reach for laws restricting the freedom of the media. On July 1, 2015, the law on the safety of citizens, the so-called gag law (Leyes Mordaza), which imposes fines for "unauthorized use of images or personal data" in the amount of 601 to 30 thousand euros and for a "minor offense" consisting of "disrespect and attention to a member of the security forces" in the amount of 100 up to 600 euros. Everyone can be punished - the so-called ordinary citizen and journalist. During the first seven months of the law, the fine was imposed 32 thousand times, including 32 journalists

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documenting police activities. The second legal act used in Spain to restrict freedom of speech is art. 578 of the Penal Code penalizing the "glorification or public justification" of terrorism or "performing acts that discredit or humiliate victims of terrorist crimes or their relatives", punishable by one to three years in prison. According to Amnesty International's findings, in 2014-2017, the Spanish security services stopped more than 70 people for "glorifying terrorism" and "humiliating victims" via social networks, 66 of them have been sentenced to imprisonment, according to Amnesty International, this led to self-censorship for fear of reprisals and the collapse of public debate, restricting the use of digital media19. In Greece, penalization of defamation and insults is still punished, and is punishable by imprisonment. Because Greek law recognizes defamation as a gross offense, everyone who is reported is subject to immediate arrest.

Violence and intimidation - pressure experienced by journalists

Mapping Media Freedom or other platforms that monitor freedom of speech have recorded and condemned numerous attacks on journalists. There are cases Greek journalists being attacked by extremists, as well as security forces intervening in cases of alleged defamation by politicians or representatives of economic elites. Police impunity against journalists was condemned in 2016 by Reporters Without Borders. The case of the Skai TV station journalists harassed in 2017 by demonstrators while reporting on events to prevent refugee children from attending school is widely discussed. For Spanish journalists, 2017 was particularly difficult due to the conflict between the central Spanish government and the Catalonian government. Journalists representing media that did not support Catalonia

19 AI (2018), Amnesty International Report 2017/2018. The State of the World’s Human Rights, online, URL: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/POL1067002018ENGLISH.PDF (October 2018).

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independence were stigmatized in social networks, and they were hindered from reporting the demonstrations.

Journalists’ trade unions as the guardian of journalistic autonomy

The professionalism of journalists is influenced by the legal protection of professional title, employees' rights, environmental integration, social and economic status of profession (France - collective agreement for journalists, adopted as Loi Guernut-Brachard in 1935), intra-factorial autonomy, standards of professional conduct, including independence from power centers and self-control. To a varying degree, they determine the quality of journalism. Legal protection of professional title sets requirements and imposes duties on people professionally involved, but also defines the conditions necessary to perform tasks, such as: form of employment (employment contract, contract for a specific task and contract of mandate, or increasingly used, especially in print media, self-employment) , working time, minimum wage, forms of professional development. Trade unions of journalists secure these interests. The lack of statutory guarantees (Greece) is not tantamount to a lack of regulation on these issues. However, voluntarily introduced as a result of an agreement between the journalists' environment and media owners can be unilaterally uttered by the latter. A strong professional organization of journalists is a safeguard against the dictates of employers. There is not one single journalist's association or union in any of the analysed countries. In each there is a federation of unions or a leading association defending the social and economic status of journalists. There are 25 journalistic syndicates in France, including CFDT, a continuator of the 1886 merger of SJF; SNJ; SRGP; FFRC, FNPS, FNPF and FPPR. The leading association is SNJ, the National Union of Journalists, which was established in 1918. It is the co-host of a collective agreement on the work of journalists.

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In Greece, the Panhellenic Federation of Journalists' Associations (PESY) has been operating since 1994. It brings together five industry associations ESIEA, ESIMETH, ESPIT, INSERT-E and ESHEPIN. The leading is ESIEA, the union of daily newspapers in Athens. Established in 1914, it has over two thousand members, is a Member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). In Spain, there is the federation of trade unions FAPE, established in 1922. It brings together 49 local journalistic associations and cooperates with 19 journalistic sector associations. FAPE determines the rights and obligations of professionals. On the other hand, associations do not have formal duties. Regulation of professional organizations belongs to autonomous regions, and only some of them have a professional group of journalists. These are: Andalusia, Castile and León, Catalonia, Galicia, La Rioja, Murcia and the Basque Country. The ethical standards formulated and followed have a significant impact on the quality of journalism. In France and Greece, there are no press councils to protect ethical journalism or even one code of ethics applicable to all journalists. Each trade union formulates its own, setting up its own bodies supervising the compliance of these codes by its members. There are several such codes in France, including French Journalists Charter of the Professional Duties of Journalists passed by SNJ (last modification in 2017). Journalists such as Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération, Les Echos, Ouest-France, 20 Minutes or Métro, some weeklies and electronic media have their own rules of professional journalism. The attempts to create a deontological code for journalists by Brunon Frappat, president of the Bayard Presse group20, were unsuccessful in 2009. In Greece, the guardians of compliance with the

20 Sirinelli, Marie (2014), Autorégulation de l’information: Comment incarner la déontologie?, Rapport remis á Madame Aurélie Filippetti, ministre de la culture et de la communication le 13 février 2014.

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ethical code developed by ESIEA are the Disciplinary Councils and the ethics supervisory body (ESA) made up of their members. In Spain, affiliation with journalists' associations or trade unions is not popular. Journalists alternatively associate at the regional level, in only six of the 17 regions there are such organizations. The Federation of FAPE journalists' associations established a Complaints and Deontology Commission, which operates in accordance with the deontological code adopted in 1993 and updated in 2017 and assesses the professional standards of all journalists. Care for professional standards is the task of media regulators and self-control bodies, i.e. radio and television broadcasting boards and press councils. These bodies formulate ethical codes, oblige media entities and journalists to observe them, and consider complaints about unethical behaviour of journalists. Ethical codes oblige journalists to observe such principles as: truthfulness of information; objectivism; diligence in collecting information; separating information from the commentary, reporting current events in a way that favors pluralism of opinion, initiating public debates on important topics, and refraining from pursuing sensationalism. It is worth emphasizing the decision of the French CSA to introduce the principle of political pluralism in television and radio programs. It obliges broadcasters to respect the law of equal access to the antenna for all political forces. Due to numerous complaints from politicians, the CSA has introduced a rule - the position of the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition is to be presented in a time corresponding to 50% of time allocated for the post of president and all representatives of the ruling party21 . Compliance with the rule is monitored by the

21 Délibération du 21 juillet 2009 relative au principe de pluralisme politique dans les services de radio et de television, “Journal officiel de la République Française” du 30 juillet 2009, deliberation n°2009- 60;

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CSA and from September 2016 a tabular list of the time of speeches by politicians or party representatives on the antennas of nationwide television and radio programs is published on the regulator's website.

Délibération n° 2013-7 du 23 avril 2013 relative aux modalités du relevé et de la transmission des temps d’intervention des personnalités politiques sur les antennes des services de radio et de television, “Journal officiel de la République Française” du 24 mai 2013, deliberation n°2013-7.

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Social and political dimension of journalism in France, Greece and Spain

Logic of the media in the selection of topics

One of the problems plaguing the European media, also from the analysed countries, is the tabloidization of content. It has various consequences. Among other things, it manifests itself in the domination of entertainment content, trivialization and personalization of political issues, overuse of emotional arguments, and the practice of journalism that distorts the assessment of political processes, consisting in replacing multithreaded analytical materials with simple, usually negatively marked, information. In addition, the presentation of complex reality is not conducive to badly conducted information selection, crucial for the classification of media material as qualitative, objective and real, that is expected by the recipients. The selection proceeds according to specific rules, different for the three levels on which the following occurs: 1. a gatekeeper; 2. the course of the selection process, i.e. the selection motifs and 3. selection of the subject itself. The official information selectors are sources from which information is collected by a specific media entity, for example information agencies, personal sources of information, including the so-called Signaling people, citizen journalists, journalists, publishers, and finally, owners. The presence of hidden gatekeepers should be alarming. These are advertisers and lobbyists. The importance of PR specialists is growing as hidden managers. Incidentally, along with the desire of media owners to minimize costs and pursue profit at any price and forced by the technological advancement of the evolution of the information production process in convergent multimedia editors, they constitute an important cause of the fall of the original journalism and the emergence of copy-paste journalism (churnalism)22. In the

22 If you want to learn about the causes, current state and future of the phenomenon of churnalism, I recommend reading: Tom Van Hout, Sarah Van Leuven, Investigating 'Churnalism' in Real Time

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autumn of 2016, Theodora Saridou, Lia-Paschalia Spyridou and Andreas Veglis conducted research on the development of information recycling in the Greek digital media. From among 100 articles on politics from the 10 most popular information services analysed by the team, only 9 percent had an original character. Ninety-one percent of the content of these websites was a copy of news agency news or press releases of authorities or companies23. Another new hidden gatekeeper is applications of corporate social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, changing the reporting, production and distribution of messages, more and more often equipped with bots, digital forms, i.e. programs operating in the absence of discussion channel operators. In March 2016 for several hours, Microsoft's work, TayTweet chatbot served @TayandYou, answering users' questions and producing internet memes. In addition to trolls, automated Twitter accounts have spread disinformation during the last election campaigns in the United States, in France, and during the referendum campaign for Britain's exit / stay in the EU. At the same time, social networks increase the possibilities of information distribution, so the media uses them for self- promotion, changing their own recipients into allies or rather free posters disseminating content24 . Opportunities and threats brought by digital public discourse for journalists and the media world have become a grateful subject of

News, in: Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies. Ed. Bob Franklin & Scott A Eldridge II. Routledge, 2016, pp. 117-125. The authors, presenting a new understanding of the evolution of journalism and its relationship with the informer (journalistic materials are no longer solely based on eyewitness accounts), the information process and recipients of the news, on page 118 said: "This is not to say that reporting news is considered irrelevant or that journalists no longer self-identify as knowledge mediators. However, the balance is shifting." 23 Saridou Theodora, Spyridou Lia-Paschalia, Veglis Andreas (2017), Churnalism on the Rise? Assessing Convergence Effects on Editorial Practices, w: “Digital Journalism” Vol. 5 (8), pp. 1006- 1024, Taylor & Francis Online. 24 Martínez- Martínez Silvia (2015), La comunidad de los diarios digitales españoles en Twitter: análisis de la distribución y del perfil de la red de contactos, [in:] “Anàlisi. Quaderns de Comunicació i Cultura” 52, pp. 17-31; online, URL: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/38977888.pdf, (October 2018).

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scientific analysis25. The increasingly important hidden gatekeepers are also "engineering technologies", which enriched editorial offices and newsrooms with algorithms used to collect and manage messages, based on searching databases and sorting content. It is their responsibility to accelerate the process of unifying the content of the media and these are the reason for the increasingly asked questions about the future of information journalism in the automated content world. A promise made in 2012 by Kristian Hammond that in five years the computer will get a Pulitzer, luckily did not come true, but everything is ahead of us26. In 2016, the novel "Konpyuta ga shosetsu wo kaku hi", meaning "The day the computer wrote the novel" went through the first stage of the procedure for selecting winners of the literary prize. Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi., a presenter, appeared on the Chinese television - as an avatar. Invariably, for centuries, an important hidden selector (gatekeeper) has been politicians who, through pressure or corruption, influence the content presented by individual media (see previous parts of the report). The selection process is also the result of the prevailing organizational culture, the gatekeeper's professionalism, his cultural and social values, and ideology. Finally, it depends on the editorial policy being implemented. The subject of the selection, i.e. the choice of the topic, also takes place according to the scheme. According to Norwegian researchers Johann Galtung and Maria Holmboe Ruge, in the selection of topics the media are generally guided by twelve criteria, the so-called information factors (criterial factors). First of all is the frequency, the less frequent phenomenon enjoy greater media interest than permanent social processes. Something new, attractive, which can revive the

25 Shanahan Marie K. (2017), Journalism, Online Comments, and the Future of Public Discourse, Routledge. 26 Hammond Kristian (2012), Automated Storytelling: Kris Hammond for the Future of StoryTelling 2012; online, URL: https://vimeo.com/50722027, (October 2018).

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website, broadcast, and distinguish it from other media. The size of the event is important, the so-called "threshold" and the intensity of its occurrence - sensation, scandal, tragedy - have more informative value. The criterion taken into account when constructing a list of subjects worthy of interest to the recipient is the ease of unambiguous association, either to the category of events and phenomena desirable or regrettable, or inexplicable and mysterious. Cultural proximity, relevance, predictability or just the opposite - surprise. According to the authors, priority over others are news stories which are negative, personalized, referring to great actors of the international scene, well-known personalities of the world of politics, celebrities, but also affecting the problems plaguing the so-called, ordinary people27. The taxonomy determined by the Norwegian researchers has been updated. Among others, this was done by Tom Harcup and Deirdre O'Neill, reforming the criteria determining the news value of a phenomenon or event. In their opinion, it deserves attention when: it concerns the power elite or celebrities, has an entertaining character, is a surprise, contains bad or good news, concerns many people, is an important event for social or political reasons, or continues topics previously taken up28. Changing media types and formats, journalistic practices and the evolution of the interests of media recipients themselves preclude the definition of permanent information value criteria. According to Hans Bernd Brosius, Klaus Gotto, Dietmar Haak and Hans Mathias Kepplinger, along with the selection of information, the "ordering" of pseudo- events by political, economic or cultural actors of social life has an impact on the process of building order. These are, for example, press conferences, product or

27 Galtung Johan and Holmboe Ruge Mari (1965), The Structure of Foreign News. The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers, “Journal of Peace Research”, vol. 2 nr. 1, pp. 64-91. 28 Harcup Tom, O’Neill Deirdre (2001), What is News? Galtung and Ruge revisited, “Journalism Studies”, vol. 2/2, pp. 261-280.

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achievements presentations, media invitations to organized events such as conventions, fairs, etc.29 The last factor is the journalist and his organizational and formal possibilities. First of all, the ability to get to facts is important, and secondly, the ability to process these facts at a specific time. It is about funds allocated by the editorial office for the preparation of journalistic material and for the workshop or content-related skills of a journalist. Therefore, the media expectations are influenced by the expectations of recipients, actors of social life and the skills of the creators themselves. What is also important is the manner in which the information selected in the media is presented. The theory of framing allows us to disclose the framework in which information was embedded. The framework determines the contexts in which information appears and about cognitive scripts that the information thus provided runs. According to the American sociologist and media expert Todd Alan Gitlin, the framework is "a persistent pattern of cognition, interpretation, selection, emphasis and exclusion by which symbol-traders routinely organizes discourse"30. Media experts point out the following frames most often used by journalists: conflict, tragedy, responsibility, human affairs, economy, morality, competition, risk and threat, violence, victims, strong and weak (David and Goliath), control and consensus, game, personality31.

29 Kepplinger Hans Mathias, Gotto Klaus, Brosius Hans Bernd, Haak Dietmar (1989), Der Einfl uss der Fernsehnachrichten auf die politische Meinungsbildung, Freiburg, Breisgau. 30 Gitlin Todd A. (1980), The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and the Unmaking of the New Left, Berkeley, p. 7. 31 Neuman W. Russell, Just Marion R., Crigler Ann N. (1992), Common knowledge. News and the construction of political meaning, Chicago; Semetko Holli A.,. Valkenburg Patricia M. (2000), Framing European politics: a content analysis of press and television news, w: „Journal of Communication” Vol. 50, nr 2, pp. 93–109; Gamson William A. (1992), Talking politics, New York.

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Media image of the world

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is interested in the European media when the events described are directly related to the problems of recipients of these media or are unusual and negative or the media have access to information about events in these countries. The results of website analysis of 8 logs from the analysed countries confirm this regularity.

Applied research method

The media message can be examined by quantitative content analysis and qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis. These methods are tools for describing media content. The analysis of content (content analysis) used in this study allows isolating problems from the so-called content of an explicit message (manifest content).

Research sample

To analyze the content, websites of nationwide dailies were selected, representing various political options, with the largest circulations, and their online versions belong to the group of the most visited information portals (see the first part of the report). The reason for choosing these media was their relative comparability and, of course, the accessibility of the content for the researcher.

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Table No. 5: Legal Notice of Titles Subject to Content Analysis Country Title tag France „Le Monde” (World), a nationwide daily, founded in 1944 in Paris by Hubert Beuve-Mery at the request of General Charles de Gaulle, the journal line is of center-left character. It was intended to be an interpretative journal, not limited only to presenting events and facts, only explaining their meaning. It is published by La Vie-Le Monde Group. According to researchers from the Mitrokhin Archive, the daily served the KGB to spread anti-American and pro-Soviet misinformation. Two journalists used in KGB operations were identified in the archives. „Le Figaro”, a nationwide journal published since 1826 in Paris. Since 2004. It has belonged to Serge Dassault's Socpress. The diary has a center-right line. Since 2009 it has been collaborating with the American "The New York Times". The official website of the journal has a special tab with information in English. The lefigaro.fr portal with 10 million monthly visits is one of the most popular online news websites in France. „La Croix” (Cross), a national Catholic daily published since 1880. It belongs to the Bayard Presse group, the first Catholic press group established in 1813. Greece „I Kathimerini” (Journal) was founded by Georgios Vlachos in 1919. It is part of the Kathimerini S.A publishing house, owned by Giannis Alafouzos, son of the transport magnate who died in 2017. It is a conservative prestigious journal. It publishes an English-language version, distributed in the United States and as an addition to the international edition of The New York Times in Greece and Cyprus. It has a digital version with over 3

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million visitors per month. „To Vima” (Tribune) is a journal founded in 1922 as "Elefthero Vima" (Free Tribune) by Dimitris Lambrakis, father of Christos Lambrakis, owner of the Lambrakis Press Group (DOL), which also publishes the "Ta Nea" newspaper. DOL's assets were acquired in 2017 by Alter Ego Media S.A. Evangelosa Marinakisa. From 2011 in the printed version of "To Vima" it appears only as a Sunday newspaper. It is a qualitative, prestigious title. They collaborated with outstanding figures of the Greek political scene: Eleftherios Venizelos, Georgios Papandreou, Nikolaos Plastiras, Constantine Karamanlis and Andreas Papandreou. It has such journalists as Yiannis Pretenderis and Vassilis Moulopoulos. Permanent authors are university professors (for example, Konstantinos Tsoukalas, Nikos Mouzelis, Dimitris Psychogios). The political line of the newspaper ranks on the center of the left wing. The title sympathizes with the reformist wing of the social-democratic party PASOK. Spain „El Pais” (Country), a national daily newspaper published since 1976. It belongs to the Prisa group, of which 51 per cent of shares are owned by the American hedge fund Liberty Acquisitions Holdings. It is the second Spanish daily, due to the amount of circulation, after the "Marca" sports journal. Center-left editorial line. Politically, the journal is related to the Social Democratic Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). It was the second Spanish daily that launched a digital edition. It was repeatedly punished for defamation (including in 2016 Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, in 2018 in Catalan TV3, businessman Jaume Roures). It is criticized for intentional passing of the truth. „ABC”, issued since 1903. It is a national monarchist daily, and supports conservative views. Politically connected to the People's Party (PP).

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„El Mundo” (World), the full name is "El Mundo del Siglo Veintiuno". Official national daily, published since 1989. It reflects center-right views. Source: own study based on rich literature on the subject.

The first 10 journalistic materials devoted to world events in each of the digital journals, posted for eight days: October 9, 2018 and for the week from November 6 to November 12, 2018, were analysed. Under the term new materials, I understand material added this particular day. A digital journal has such an advantage over a paper edition that it can collect content and only replenish it with new messages each day. In the French and Spanish digital journals studied, folders (dossiers) of international materials were separated, divided into geographical areas or issues that collect content, constituting documentation of particular issues. Thanks to this, the recipient can reach interesting, even historical, content. In "Le Monde", the international department was divided geographically and problematically into: Europe, Brexit, America, My life, Africa, New arrivals, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, defence, diplomacy and in each of these parts there are folders for collecting material for yet more specific topics. The analysis was carried out on each of the designated days to the first 10, as there were not always so many materials marked with the date of the study. In total, 534 materials were analysed. Their distribution to individual dailies is presented in the table.

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Table No. 6 The number of journalistic materials analysed in individual dailies Country Daily title Number of materials France Le Monde 75 Le Figaro 65 La Croix 65 Greece I 70 Kathimerini To Vima 58 Spain El Pais 76 ABC 60 El Mundo 65 Total 534 Source: own study.

It is not an attempt to draw general conclusions, but is accepted in qualitative research, to show trends. The content analysis itself was carried out in two stages. The task of the first stage of the study was to establish a map of the world, emerging from press relations (see Appendix No. 1) and the type of problems to be addressed (see the World section under: Conclusions resulting from content analysis). The main subject of the analysis (second stage of the study) was the media image of the ENP countries. In the second stage of the study the topic was established as the subject of interest and the context in which they were presented (see subsection of your ENP under: Conclusions resulting from content analysis).

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Purpose and research questions

Each of the countries covered by the report, especially France and Spain, has developed forms of cooperation with the ENP countries. Everyone is interested in strengthening this cooperation, also for the security of their own citizens. These countries participate in EU activities aimed at supporting reforms in ENP countries for democratization (Democracy governance), Europeanization (normative pressure) and socialization, deepening economic cooperation serving the economic development of neighbouring countries, which will be conducive to social inclusion, including the creation of jobs for young people. The implementation of these priorities is accompanied by normative goals: the promotion of democracy, human rights, the rule of law and stability, also in the sphere of security, especially in combating terrorism and counteracting radicalization, in combating illegal migration, human trafficking and human smuggling. Content analysis that identifies / or does not include these topics in media messages will help determine the media's informational participation in the implementation of the ENP. At the same time, because the media of EU member states are analysed, informative participation should be understood as: informing about countries covered by the ENP; creating an atmosphere conducive to achieving the objectives of this policy by showing good examples of cooperation or Europeanisation of neighbouring countries and promoting the idea of Neighbourhood policy.

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Conclusions resulting from content analysis

World

The image of the world, emerging from the top ten journalistic materials posted on the websites of eight dailies, confirms the use of the previously described rules for the selection of information. The world is primarily the United States of America. The largest number of materials both in total (156 out of 534) and in individual dailies somehow concerns the USA. The second and third places are not so obvious anymore and appear differently in individual diaries. France was of interest because of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War that attracted the leaders of 60 countries from around the world. The United Kingdom is of interest to EU countries due to the lack of established rules for the country leaving the European Union. French media are known for offering their recipients a geographically wide area. The number of foreign correspondents in the French media editorials stems directly from this curiosity of the French world and the state's aspirations, to play a significant role in the international arena. In addition, there are historical links with former colonial countries. The Spanish media is particularly interested in culturally close Central and Latin America. There is no such community of interest in a specific geographical area in the case of the analysed Greek dailies. Even the amount of space devoted to the United States is definitely different. Perhaps the decisive factor here is the nature of the first level of the information selection process, i.e. the source of information. "I Kathimerini" cooperates with "The New York Times".

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Table No. 7 The world, presented by individual dailies in the analysed time. Country Daily title Number of materials Second and third countries concerning the USA according to the number of materials France Le Monde 19 Yemen – 3 2 materials each from a few countries Le Figaro 20 2 materials each from a few countries La Croix 17 Great Britain – 5 Greece I 25 Turkey – 7 Kathimerini France - 6 To Vima 9 France - 9 Germany - 4 Spain El Pais 25 Brazil - 5 France - 4 ABC 21 France -8 Mexico - 5 El Mundo 20 Great Britain and France 5 each Russia - 4 Source: own study

The most diverse description of the world was provided by "Le Monde" (39 countries) and "Le Figaro" (32). The world is the least diverse according to "I Kathimerini" (23 countries) and "To Vima" (27). This is due to the size of the editorial office, the number of foreign correspondents available to the editorial staff, the

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number of employees and sources they cooperate with - generally from the financial resources that they can devote to the preparation of the paper. Digital Greek newspapers mainly refer to foreign media and foreign news agencies.

What topics were taken?

Sad, sorry, tragic, according to the principle that the priority over others have negative news stories, personalized, referring to great actors of the international scene, well-known personalities of the world of politics, celebrities but also affecting the problems plaguing the so-called, ordinary people. A significant part of the analysed materials was devoted to - politicians (Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, British successor to the throne, Prince Charles, Michelle Obama, Lech Wałęsa, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, elected to the US Congress), philanthropists, actors, artists and celebrities (George Soros, Kirk Douglas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jim Carrey or the scandalous Emile Ratelband, who filed a lawsuit in Arnhem against the government to correct his age in documents because he has a hindrance to his use of the dating site - "El Mundo" from 9.11). The subject of their characters, life plans, rumors and scandals with their participation was taken up. For example, the French dailies "Le Monde" and "Le Figaro" on 7.11 and 8.11 reported the arrest of the Russian billionaire, and owner of the football club AS Monaco Dmitry Rybołowlew in connection with the suspicion of using his contacts with the highest officials from Monaco in a dispute of 1 billion euros with the Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier. As a consequence of publication in the "Le Monde", accusing the Monaco justice system of supporting the Russian oligarch, the Minister of Justice Monako Phillippe Narmino resigned, which was reported on 9.11 in "Le Figaro". Not every one of these reports was subject to incidental, socially worthless incidents, confirmed by the case of businessman Osman Kavala, a symbolic prisoner

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of Turkey, in custody for a year without any charges ("Le Monde" from 10.11) or the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian condemned in 2010 for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. Anne-Isabelle Tollet, a journalist of "Le Figaro", tirelessly addressed the problem. The ads about successive Hollywood stars involved in the activities of the Mothers2Mothers organization, which in seven countries of sub-Saharan Africa deals with preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child, are also useful. The organization provides education and support for pregnant women ("To Vima" from 11.11). Some of the analysed journalistic materials concerned tragic violent phenomena. Information about the victims of Ebola in Congo in the top ten foreign reports on November 11 was provided by Greek newspapers. During the period under discussion, the dailies reported a shooting in a bar in California (each from 8 to 10.11), the collapse of three buildings in Marseilles (each French title was not taken into account), the clash of the Norwegian Navy with a south-western tanker off the coast of Norway ("ABC", "To Vima" from 8/11), the death of young footballers as a result of a bus accident in Peru ("I Kathimerini" on November 12), an attack of a cutter in Melbourne (9.11 each) and bombing in a hotel in Mogadishu ("To Vima" from 11/11). On November 9, El Pais reported on a knife crime wave growing in the UK. Undertaking this subject can be treated as confirmation of the existence of a so-called wave of interest in criminal problems. The hypothesis formulated by Mark Fishman and repeatedly confirmed empirically states that reports from unprecedented events become frames that facilitate the interpretation of subsequent reports on the same subject32. A cutaneous attack in Melbourne could have provoked the continuation of the thread. The category of tragic violent events also includes reports on the arrangements of the disaster of the

32 Fishman, Mark (1978), Crime Waves as Ideology, “Social Problems” nr 25, pp. 531-543.

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passenger plane of Indonesian Lion Air airlines with 189 passengers and crew members on board ("ABC" from 7.11) or information about the emergency landing of Air France in Irkutsk ("I Kathimerini") from 11.11. One of the few positive pieces of news in this category was given on November 8 by "To Vima" and "El Pais" about the release of 78 children kidnapped from a school in the northwest of Cameroon. The analysed dailies also reported cataclysms - the effects of weather anomalies in Italy (each of the dailies), fires in California (everyone), the volcano eruption in Guatemala ("To Vima" on 7.11.), The victims of the landslide in Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro ("Le Monde "from 11/11.) And the earthquake in Greenland ("To Vima "from 9.11.). The topics addressed in the eight European daily newspapers were events and phenomena harming third-world societies that are important from the point of view of political or economic interests of the countries of origin of the media or, according to the editors, have a chance to arouse the interest of recipients of these media. The exodus of the inhabitants of Honduras was widely commented on. A topic close to the Europeans, experienced by the wave of immigrants. Anyway, this thread appeared in the analysed newspapers in connection with the next sinking of a boat with refugees this year (every daily from 6 to 9.11 and "Le Figaro" from 12.11). Political topics of interest were wars and revolutions, i.e. states in which phenomena changing their political constellation occurred, and even the balance of power in the entire region to which they belong. It is primarily Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia with many years of civil wars, which led to humanitarian crises. Elections are always a “hot” topic, and so it was also this time, with the so- called midterm elections in the United States, deciding on the composition of the House of Representatives and part of the Senate and being a kind of plebiscite for or against the policy of the incumbent president, were analysed repeatedly by all the

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dailies discussed. The nomination of European political factions as candidates for top positions in the European Union also aroused widespread interest. Le Figaro analysed the presidential elections in Madagascar on 7 November, and Le Monde on 12 November presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And finally, extremism and populism as well as scandals on the political scene, including illegal financing of the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) by a Swiss pharmaceutical company ("I Kathimerini" from 12.11).

ENP Countries

The media image of the ENP countries, basically, did not run away in character from the image of the world presented above. The analysed digital newspapers mainly reported negative phenomena. Only one material had a clearly positive context - it concerned the tourism assets of the capital of Georgia ("I Kathimerini" from 7.11). First of all, the representation of the subject concerning these countries in the analysed digital papers should be assessed as insignificant. It is difficult to assess 40 materials differently in relation to the 534 issues concerning international issues in general. On average, 5 materials per title within eight days. Divided into individual digital dailies, this is even more modest.

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Table No. 8 Number of journalistic materials related to ENP countries Country Daily title Number of ENP countries materials journalistic materials concerned

1 2 3 4 France Le Monde 5 Algeria, Tunisia, Ukraine, 2xPalestine Le Figaro 9 2xEgypt, Israel, Morocco, 2x Syria, Palestine, 2xUkraine La Croix 10 2xEgypt, Israel, Libya, Morocco, 2xSyria, Palestine, 2xUkraina Greece I Kathimerini 3 Egypt, Georgia, Morocco To Vima 2 Palestine, Ukraine Spain El Pais 6 Belarus, Egypt, Israel, 2x Palestine, Syria, Ukraine 2 Egypt, Morocco El Mundo 3 Morocco, Palestine, Ukraine Source: Own study.

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Table No. 9 Number of journalistic materials dedicated to specific ENP countries ENP Number of Place of publication countries materials Algeria 1 Le Monde Armenia 0 Azerbaijan 0 Belarus 1 El Pais Egypt 7 Le Figaro, La Croix, I Kathimerini, El Pais, ABC Georgia 1 I Kathimerini Israel 3 Le Figaro, La Croix, El Pais Jordan 0 Lebanon 0 Libya 1 La Croix Morocco 5 Le Figaro, La Croix, I Kathimerini, ABC, El Mundo Moldavia 0 Palestine 8 Le Monde, Le Figaro, La Croix, To Vima, El Pais, El Mundo Syria 5 Le Figaro, La Croix, El Pais Tunisia 1 Le Monde Ukraine 8 Le Monde, Le Figaro, La Croix, To Vima, El Pais, El Mundo Source: Own study.

Press relations do not cover the entire list of ENP countries. It is least surprising that Eastern Partnership countries - Azerbaijan and Moldova - were present in addition to the interest of the analysed digital newspapers.

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It was possible to expect the presence of Armenia in the news of the French dailies, for example, because of the large and resilient Armenian diaspora in France. If not for the fact that "La Croix", reporting on the events in Syria on November 11, took up the topic of the Jordanians supplying the border zone stores, the subject of this state would not be taken in any of the analysed digital journals (reminding that only 10 materials were analysed; foreign subjects from each of the analysed eight days). The most surprising is the lack of reports about Lebanon accepting refugees from Syria and Palestine. The EU-Lebanon Association Agreement resulted in a scientific and technical cooperation agreement in 2018, defining the conditions for the participation of the Republic of Lebanon in the partnership in the field of research and innovation in the Mediterranean region (PRIMA). The effects of this agreement could be an appreciative topic of press considerations. The analysis of the content of materials included in the eight digital journals, which concerned the ENP countries to a limited extent confirms the occurrence of the assumed issues. The analysed digital journals raised the problems of the political or geopolitical situation of these countries. Also, the only text about Libya, which appeared on November 10 in "La Croix", informed about the optimistic feelings of Ghassan Salame, the special representative of the UN Secretary General, on the possibility of introducing constitutional and legal solutions necessary to be carried out in 2019 to achieve the long-awaited presidential election. The feelings were based on the study of Libyan public opinion. Eighty percent of Libyans, tired of the functioning of two illegal parliaments, which only prolong the political instability lasting from 2011, opted for the election. In the face of the forthcoming high-level meeting devoted to Libya (November 12-13, 2018), the text "La Croix" is probably a harbinger of further journalistic materials about this country.

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On November 7, Le Monde discussed the schism problem in Tunisia. It showed how President Beji Caid Essebsi questions the changes in the government announced by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. The political situation of Ukraine was presented in two materials of the French dailies "La Croix" and "Le Monde" from November 10 and 12. Condemning the elections carried out in areas not controlled by Ukraine, in Donetsk and Lugansk, as incompatible with international law and Ukrainian legislation, they present the circumstances in which they were carried out. "Le Monde", which has not been able to send its own observer, since the end of 2015, and the ban on entering the separatist zones was imposed on the editors, referred to the Agence France-Presse reporter (AFP), which noted the presence of people in the polling station with weapons and the practice of bribery. The attempt to rebuild Egypt's position in the Middle East was captured in an article in "La Croix" of November 9. Egypt also appeared on the same day in the reports in "La Croix", "ABC" and "I Kathimerini" regarding sentences passed on members of the Muslim Brotherhood for the massacre that they carried out in 2013 killing nearly 1,000 protesters in the squares of Raba al-Adawijja and Nahda. Press materials also addressed the issue of observing or violating the rule of law, including freedom. And on this occasion, Egypt was dealt with in "Le Figaro" and "El Pais" writing about the prisoner of conscience, Mahmoud Abou Zeidzie (Shawk), accused in the above-described political process and arrested while performing the duties of a photojournalist for the British photo agency Demotix. On the occasion of the threatened freedom of speech and media, he introduced his readers to "Le Monde" on October 9, while discussing the arrest of Algerian journalists - Abdou Semar and Merouane Boudiaba. A deadly attack at a school in the Crimea in Kerch was discussed by Le Figaro (8.11).

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The analysed dailies did not avoid economic topics. El Pais on November 8 presented the Israeli project of a railway line running from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf in Oman. A day earlier, the same journal wrote about the authoritarian regime of Lukashenka, which encourages the development of a high technology park. La Croix announced on November 8 that Morocco is taking on the development of the controversial Western Sahara without waiting for a political agreement on the status of the former Spanish colony. "I Kathimerini" reported on November 8 about the project of the Spanish architectural studio Rafael de la-Hoz Arquitectos in cooperation with the Moroccan company CHB Cabinet Hakim Benjelloun building the highest tower in Africa – the 250-meter "Bank of Africa Tower". There have been scandals, and affairs at the top levels of power. "Le Figaro" on November 9 wrote about David Shimron, a lawyer and trustee of the Israeli Prime Minister, involved in the issue of corruption and trade in influences that accompanied the sale of German warships to Israel. "La Croix" from 7.11. announced the arrest warrant issued by the French international administration to three senior Syrian officials accused of complicity in torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ongoing civil war in Syria was reported on ("Le Figaro" from 9/10 and 7.11, "El Pais" from 10.11). Other conflicts were also reported on. On November 12, the correspondent of "Le Monde" reported: "Peace of mind in Gaza was just a short break. The return of electricity to the Palestinian enclave and the distribution by Qatar of millions of dollars to pay for oil supplies and salaries of civil servants confirmed the beginning of concessions after months of tension with Israel. However, the night escalation from Sunday 11 to Monday 12 of November between Hamas, which controls the enclave and the Jewish state, once again undermines Egypt's efforts to reach a truce between the two sides" (author’s own translation). Crimes have been stigmatized. On November 11, ABC described the mafia of the hashish traders operating in Morocco.

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There were also reports of negative events that happened in the ENP countries to citizens of France or Spain. In Morocco, a Frenchman was accused of insulting the flag ("Le Figaro" from 9.10) and Catalan tourists were killed in a car accident ("El Mundo" from 8.11). The analysis of the content leads to the conclusion that the digital dailies in question did not participate in the implementation of the ENP on a news basis. The way of informing about countries covered by the ENP does not reflect the reality there, it does not provide a sufficient compendium of knowledge about these countries. It also does not create an atmosphere conducive to achieving the objectives of this policy - the lack of presentation of good examples of cooperation. There is no trace in the analysed materials about the perception of the Europeanisation of neighbouring countries, the implementation of the rule of law, and observance of civil rights and freedoms. I did not find there any attempt to promote the idea of a neighbourhood policy. On the contrary, the reading of press reports led to the statement of failure to attempt any arrangement close to neighbourly relations. An image of states and societies that have their own rules emerged, contrary to those professed by EU member states or mentally and culturally distant to Europeans Presentation of the political and economic situation of countries covered by this policy, promoting actions in the field of security protection, combating terrorism or human trafficking and smuggling of people would require a significant expansion of sources of information, which would require a greater organizational and financial commitment on the part of the European media. Cooperation with civil society organizations, which may be valuable signatories, is a proven practice in other areas. However, necessary here is the involvement of the societies of countries covered by the ENP and maybe even the patronage of many EU agencies created for the implementation of the ENP.

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Content analysis also showed the differences between the Greek digital and French and Spanish digital dailies. Greek people more often refer to easily accessible sources of information from outside the editorial office, namely press agencies. More often than French or Spanish, they sign the material with a signature - a band, which is reserved for the main medium in the printed French press, for example. And it can also mean the use of materials already in circulation, or churnalism. In addition, they operate shorter forms of journalistic expression. This may be a consequence of the smaller financial resources available to the Greek

editors, maybe the conscious policy of re-using once prepared material.

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World maps drawn by eight websites of the analysed journals

Data World according to Le Monde 9.10. Kosovo Russia Russia China Brazil USA EU Iraq Great Thailand Britain Serbia

6.11 USA USA Spain Nigeria Germany Iran Turkey Yemen USA Germany 7.11 USA Monaco Tunisia Yemen Iran Nicaragua Gabon Mexico Italy USA 8.11. USA Pakistan Monaco Madagascar Indonesia Brazil Colombia USA Mexico 9.11 Australia USA Germany USA USA EU South Poland Algeria Philippines Korea 10.11 Spain USA Turkey Iraq USA USA USA Sri Great Israel Lanka Britain

11.11 USA USA USA Poland Yemen Brazil

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www.coleuropenatolin.eu

12.11 Great Ukraine Palestine Cameroon Sri Lanka Palestine USA USA Colombia Congo Britain

data World according to Le Figaro 9.10. Egypt Lithuania USA Germany Iran Italy USA Sweden Syria Morocco

Estonia

6.11 USA Great Britain New Iran Turkey Spain Brazil USA USA Spain Caledonia

7.11 USA USA China Poland Yemen Saudi Iraq USA USA Mexico Arabia

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www.coleuropenatolin.eu

8.11. USA Pakistan USA USA Yemen Saudi Germany Afghanistan Ukraine Arabia

9.11 Australia Israel USA Monaco Austria South Syria USA USA Pakistan Korea 10.11 USA Great Britain USA Madagascar USA Italy Cyprus

11.11 USA Australia 12.11 Palestine Ukraine China USA Turkey North Korea, South Korea

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Data World according to La Croix 9.10. Thailand Egypt Nicaragua Iraq USA Angola Venezuela Great Brazil Russia Britain

6.11 USA New Great Saudi USA Turkey Iran USA Mexico Great Caledonia Britain Arabia Britain

7.11 USA Vatican City Mexico China Italy Iraq USA USA USA Syria 8.11. Pakistan Pakistan Great Morocco Yemen Israel USA USA Italy Britain

9.11 USA Congo Poland Yemen Pakistan EU Italy Philippines Egypt USA 10.11 USA Ukraine USA Libya Poland Great

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Britain

11.11 Syria USA 12.11 Philippines Mozambique Ukraine Palestine USA USA Libya Morocco

Data 9.10. Vatican Hungary Sweden USA Egypt Israel Brazil EU Great Britain City

6.11 USA USA Poland China Portugal Mexico USA Nicaragua Venezuela 7.11 USA USA USA USA Venezuela Great Italy Belarus Canada

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Britain

8.11. Italy USA USA USA USA Italy Israel Cameroon Paraguay 9.11 Australia Mexico USA USA USA EU Great South France Britain Africa

10.11 Argentina USA Poland Brazil Brazil France Israel Somalia Australia 11.11 France France Brazil USA USA USA 12.11 USA Palestine Poland Brazil USA Russia Ukraine USA USA

Data World according to ABC 9.10. USA Egypt Germany France Germany Venezuela Russia Mexico Iraq USA

6.11 Mexico New Bahrain Poland France USA USA USA Venezuela USA

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Caledonia

7.11 USA USA USA Iraq Indonesia Poland USA Mexico Venezuela USA 8.11. Norway USA USA USA Pakistan Russia USA Mexico USA Peru 9.11 USA USA EU France USA Mexico Yemen EU 10.11 USA France Ecuador France 11.11 France USA Morocco Venezuela 12.11 France Palestine France Germany

Data World according to El Mundo 9.10. North Iran Brazil Russia Russia Iraq Iraq Israel USA Sweden Korea

6.11 Iran Netherlands North Great Venezuela Germany Brazil USA Great Poland Korea,

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South Britain Britain Korea

7.11 USA Venezuela USA France Great Iraq Russia USA USA USA Britain

8.11. USA Morocco USA Great Pakistan EU Russia Germany Venezuela Britain

9.11 Vatican France USA EU Pakistan USA USA Netherlands China USA City 10.11 Germany Mexico USA USA USA 11.11 France USA USA Congo Great

College of Europe Natolin Campus ul. Nowoursynowska 84 PL 02-797 Warsaw, Poland

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Britain

12.11 Russia France Ukraine USA USA France

College of Europe Natolin Campus ul. Nowoursynowska 84 PL 02-797 Warsaw, Poland

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Data World according to I Kathimerini 9.10. USA USA Great Great North USA Egypt Iraq USA China Britain Britain Korea

6.11 USA Italy Spain France USA Great Spain USA Turkey Malaysia Britain

7.11 Canada France USA Cyprus Germany USA Monaco Italy Georgia 8.11. USA Turkey Turkey USA Italy Morocco USA 9.11 Australia USA Italy USA Great India USA North Thailand Britain Korea

10.11 USA Turkey France Turkey USA Germany USA

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11.11 France Australia France France Albania Congo USA Great Britain

12.11 USA Cyprus USA USA Turkey Turkey USA Peru USA Germany

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Data World according to To Vima 9.10 Italy 6.11 Spain Mexico France France Indonesia Italy Saudi Iran USA Germany Arabia

7.11 Monaco Germany USA Italy France Guatemala Turkey Spain France USA 8.11. Brazil Tajikistan Norway Palestine Monaco France Spain Germany Cameroon 9.11 Austria Great North Turkey Albania Greenland Britain Korea

10.11 USA Somalia USA Australia Saudi

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Arabia

11.11 France USA Somalia Congo Great Yemen USA USA Britain

12.11 Yemen Great France France France Czech Germany USA Ukraine Britain Republic

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Summary

In the three EU countries France, Spain and Greece the old traditional media are struggling as a result of the on-going changes in the media. Firstly the media market is influenced by the tabloidization of media which results in media devoting much more space and air time to emotions, scandals and affairs, instead of the higher value based content. In addition readership turns to switch towards multimedia content instead of text materials. There is growing interconnectedness of media and political systems of respective countries. Media either directly represent the interest of specific (ruling) political parties or they are reporting in a highly biased way – directing their message to the people of the same political orientation. No major media are pursuing efforts to offer a balanced and objective message any longer, in way it was offered over the last decades. A third characteristic is a growing tempo of journalistic work which forces journalists to produce growing volumes of multimedia content. In such working environment there is not much time left for the reflection, no time to search for the second or the third source to justify the thesis and double-check the value of information. These issues add to the rising economic problems of the media and at the same time undermine the audiences’ trust of the general audience towards media. As a result the share of the traditional media in France, Greece and Spain is shrinking. The New Media (social media and newly launched digital media) are not gaining the trust of the audience. Facebook and other social media are perceived as much less trustworthy than the traditional newspapers, TV or radio stations. Social media, due to the wave of scandals (e.g. Cambridge Analytica) are seen as the tool

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of disinformation, even though they remain the main source of information for the majority of users.

College of Europe Natolin Campus ul. Nowoursynowska 84 PL 02-797 Warsaw, Poland