As reported by the Newspaper Society: In a keynote speech (last week) at ENPA’s Tête à Tête with the Press Lord Black, a member of ENPA’s executive committee, said: “We are an industry in rapid transformation but also one under real, unrelenting pressure. Yet perhaps most importantly we are also an industry which for the sake of a free society must survive and prosper.
“Freedom of expression is the foundation on which European democracy, and European civilization, is built – for it is the guardian of every other freedom we as European citizens take for granted. Where the press falters, either because of a direct attack on its freedoms or more likely because it fails commercially, democracies themselves also falter.”
“For me threats to a free press come in two different forms. The first is easy to see and understand – and that is a direct assault on self regulation and the imposition of formal legal controls on the press. That is what has happened in the last three years in the United Kingdom where the so-called Royal Charter on press regulation, alongside legislation imposing exemplary levels of damages in libel and privacy matters on publishers who do not co-operate with a new state licensing system, is the first set of statutory press controls in Great Britain since 1695.
“It is a very dangerous and draconian system and publishers in my country are united in their determination to oppose it, including taking action if necessary in the European Court. That is an example of a very direct and obvious threat to free expression and indeed we have seen in recent years that other established democracies in Europe are not immune to similar such threats.
“Much more complicated is the second way that a free press can be undermined, and that is by stealth, through the accumulation of often well-meaning regulations or apparently harmless red tape or by the slow cutting away of copyright protection - all of which make it more and more difficult to run a successful business. And commercial success is so important because if the press is not successful commercially it cannot be free, because it cannot invest in high quality investigative journalism.”
Lord Black went on to talk about the way through data protection laws are affecting journalism as well as business issues affecting the industry such as the need for a tax regime which recognises the special role of the press in upholding democracy, and a stable copyright regime.
At the event in Brussels on Tuesday, ENPA launched 10 Action Points for a free, independent and sustainable press sector in Europe for the new mandate of the European institutions from 2014-19. The action points range from freedom of the press to copyright, data protection and competition in the digital market place.
ENPA president Ivar Rusdal, who introduced the event, said: “Freedom of expression is at the heart of European democracy and at the core of the newspaper and news media sector. In the course of the next five years, European legislators will have the opportunity to take many decisions to help to ensure a vibrant and sustainable news media sector to the benefit of Europe’s citizens. ENPA will be there to provide any information and input needed to help parliamentarians in their important work.”
