Project for the update and the pilot test implementation of the “Media Pluralism Monitor” (MPM), within the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF), Grant Decision number 30-CE-0586359/00-21 Monitoring Media Pluralism in Europe - Testing and Implementation of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2014 (Policy Report-December 2014) Supervisor: Pier Luigi Parcu Authors: Elda Brogi, Alina Dobreva, Andrea Calderaro sections 1.3 and 2.2, Pier Luigi Parcu section 5.3 The Authors thank their colleagues Paula Gori for her important contribution in the research and in the editing of the report and Lorenzo Giuntini for creating and maintaining the online platform of data collection. The content of this report does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union or the European University Institute. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the report lies entirely with the authors. 1 Executive Summary Scope of Application and Results of the MPM 2014 Implementation. Risks to Media Pluralism in the Selected Countries In September 2013, the European Commission assigned to the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute, the task of updating, simplifying and conducting a pilot-test implementation of the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) developed in 2009 by a consortium led by the University of Leuven. The Centre, acting independently from the Commission and the Member States, after reducing the scope of application of the MPM to news and current affairs, fulfilled these tasks and pilot tested the Monitor in a sample of nine EU countries. This action was followed with the scope of enhancing the practical applicability of the MPM as a research instrument that would potentially be usable for future implementation, in a neutral and standard way, across all of the EU Member States, and to assess the risk to media pluralism in the selected countries. Based on scientific and neutral criteria, the CMPF has designed the MPM2014 by reducing the number of legal, economic and socio-political indicators that were included in the MPM2009, has set standard methodological strategies in order to improve the data collection’s feasibility across the EU Member States. The MPM2014 has been constructed as a streamlined version of the MPM2009, but with an effort to maintain its holistic character and to reflect the growing importance of the internet. The simplified MPM2014 has been focused on news and current affairs aspects of the media due to their key importance for the civic and political awareness of citizens and for the democratic processes. In order to pilot test the MPM tool, the CMPF selected a sample of 9 countries, where it was implemented. The list of the sampled countries includes: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy and the UK. Several criteria have been used to assure the highest degree of neutrality and representativeness of the sample, to allow for a consistent implementation in different contexts. In particular, the selected countries represent all of the broad geographical regions, including Western and Central-Eastern countries, Southern and Northern parts of the continent; founding and recently accessed Member States and also countries with different size and population, as well as different political and media systems. Based on the selected countries, the CMPF has identified and established a network of outstanding institutions and experts in the field of media pluralism, who are based in each of selected countries, with the scope of collaborating and supporting the CMPF’s work on the implementation of the MPM according to their expertise in the country. The analysis of the results from this test-implementation proved to be very useful in terms of testing the methodology, country media systems’ analysis, assessing media pluralism and media freedom, and in defining strategies for a further enhancement of the tool in terms of applicability, universality and comparability. 2 The aim of the MPM, as a measurement tool, is to assess the risks to media pluralism in the country monitored. The results of the pilot-test implementation therefore show a provisional assessment of the risk to media pluralism through different risk domains in the selected countries. The current scores however, are somewhat influenced by the not-fine-tuned design of the instrument and therefore, should be taken only as indicative ones. The examined risk domains are: Basic domain, Cultural pluralism in the media, Geographical pluralism in the media, Pluralism of media ownership and control, Political pluralism in the media and Pluralism of media types and genres. Within the Basic Domain, the Monitor tests the strength of the media’s legal framework in each country and measures whether there are risks for the protection of freedom of speech and related rights (including the rights of journalists) and risks for the independence of the governance bodies of the media system. Additional to that, when it comes to internet policies, the basic domain considers as relevant if a country is promoting measures for the impartial circulation of internet data. The basic domain measures also the risk of insufficient media literacy and the country’s policies to foster it. The selected countries show an overall compliance with basic and common legal standards on freedom of expression. Problems raised in those countries where defamation is a criminal offence, or where the implementation of the law is not consistent with the principle set in the law itself. Some concern is raised in some of the countries by the high score given by the assessment of the independence of the national regulatory authorities (NRAs). This domain scores low risk for Belgium, Denmark, France and the UK, and medium risk for Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary and Italy. The risk domain Cultural Pluralism in the Media is focused on the universality of the media’s accessibility and representation, especially in relation to minorities and special needs groups. It is one of the risk domains that have been most significantly transformed when compared with the MPM2009, due to the shifting focus towards news and current affairs. This risk domain struggles with the lack of a unified and politically accepted definition and approach to minorities across the EU - an issue that is to be tackled in the next application of the MPM. This issue creates a measurement problem, but it is also indicative of some policy deficiencies, which often go beyond the media policies. The major risks to media pluralism are here related to this, and to the consequent lack of sufficient provisions that guarantee media pluralism relating to minorities. This domain scores a low risk for Denmark and the UK; a medium risk for Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary and Italy; and a high risk for Estonia. The risk domain Geographical Pluralism in the Media includes indicators concerning the level of representation of local and regional communities, defined on the basis of both the spatial and social dimensions, in the various media outlets. This risk domain has been examined in a limited pilot fashion by the MPM2014 as some indicators focused on measuring risks only on national level. High risk is assessed in Greece and Hungary; medium risk is assessed in 6 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, the UK), while France scores a low risk in relation to this domain. The domain Pluralism of Media Ownership and Control assesses the guarantees that media outlets are sufficiently owned by multiple independent actors, which fosters the likelihood to limit the level of control on such media, which facilitate pluralism in content production. By 3 monitoring the risks of high ownership concentration in the media, high concentration of cross-media ownership, and lack of transparency in ownership structures, indicators assess a medium to high-risk result in all of the 9 countries. It must be stressed, nonetheless, that the results must be interpreted in the light of the different sizes of the national markets. This result indicates a risk to media pluralism, but also it emphasises the necessity of careful application of coefficients reflecting the structural characteristics of media markets, especially their size and resourcefulness. The risk domain Political Pluralism in the Media focuses on the risks related to political pressure and interference in the content and functioning of the media outlets. This risk domain includes indicators measuring the legal safeguards as well as the socio-political context. The data demonstrates that in a number of countries there are many aspects that need thorough attention in order to achieve low risk in this domain. An important issue in this domain is the lack of data and transparency of ownership in some countries, which created methodological challenges to be addressed in the future application of the MPM, as well as demonstrated a risk to pluralism. This domain scores a low risk for Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the UK; medium risk for Bulgaria, France, and a high risk for Greece, Hungary and Italy. The risk domain Pluralism of Media Types and Genres relates to measures that ensure that the markets effectively remain plural when it comes to the distribution of information of public interest, or the supply of public service media. This domain has been transformed and limited significantly due to the MPM2014 focus on news and current affairs. It scores high risk in Italy and Greece. The application of the MPM2014 demonstrates that there are various risks for media pluralism across the selected countries and every country has a specific weakness that creates high scores, meaning high risk. Due to the yet unfinished design of the MPM, in these cases a further investigation is needed to understand whether the high score means a clear and present danger for media pluralism, or whether it is a false positive. From a methodological point of view, the pilot test implementation of the MPM is highly successful.