EU’s Media Freedom Act ‘to set the cat among the pigeons’ – Roberta Metsola

The European Union’s forthcoming EU Media Freedom Act has been crafted “to set the cat amongst the pigeons,” according to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.

The “heavy systems” in some countries place politicians much further away from those asking the questions than in other member states, Metsola said when she sat down with Michael Kaden for an interview in Strasbourg on Tuesday morning to talk about the upcoming EU legislation.

She questioned the improbability of some countries doing so much to enter the bloc and convincing the EU’s institutions that everything is just fine, when the reality looks altogether different.

The EP’s message throughout the negotiations on the new media freedom act, she said, was “to make sure that all governments, all elected representatives, at all levels, have to be accountable to those who elect them”.

On the often thorny issue of accessibility to government information and the protection of journalists within the Union’s member states, Metsola observed how the European Parliament has been striving to put the brakes on the backsliding of the protection of journalists.

Asked how she envisages bringing about a change in certain governments’ attitudes towards journalists, the EP President recalled her appeal at the vigil for Daphne Caruana Galizia on Sunday, where she called for the opening up of “all systems” in order for them to be transparent to the public.