Transparent State Advertising A Step Closer For Malta As European Commission Adopts ‘Media Freedom Act’
Malta’s government could soon be ordered to implement a transparent system for state advertising after the European Commission adopted a set of rules to protect media pluralism and independence.
The European Media Freedom Act proposes new requirements for the allocation of state advertising to media to ensure it is transparent and non-discriminatory.
If member states and the European Parliament agree to this Act, it could herald a significant change to Malta’s media landscape, which lacks rules on state advertising.
This means the government can choose to favour media outlets owned by the Labour Party when it comes to allocating its advertising budget, such as when 18 ministers and parliamentary secretaries paid €16,700 in public funds for ads in a single edition of the party’s Sunday newspaper Kullħadd last January.
Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi had also alleged that every ministry paid PL’s ONE TV between €5,000 and €10,000 per schedule since 2017 for ministers to appear on the shows Espresso and Kalamita.
Besides transparency in state advertising, the European Media Freedom Act proposes the following changes.
-Governments must respect the editorial freedom of media service providers and improve the protection of journalistic sources.
-Media service providers must ensure transparency of ownership by publicly disclosing such information and take measures with a view to guaranteeing the independence of individual editorial decisions.
-The use of spyware against media, journalists and their families will be banned.
-Funding to state media (in Malta’s case TVM) should be “adequate and stable” to ensure editorial independence. The head and governing board of state media will have to be appointed in a transparent, open and non-discriminatory manner. State media providers will have to provide a plurality of information and opinions, in an impartial manner, in accordance with their public service mission.
-Governments will have to assess the impact of media market concentrations on media pluralism and editorial independence.
-Audience measurement systems, which have an impact on advertising revenues, must be transparent.
-Safeguards will be introduced against the unjustified removal of media from digital platforms. Before taking down content, platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok will have to inform media service provers about the reasons, although exceptions will apply for “systemic risks such as disinformation”. Any complaints lodged by media service providers will have to be processed with priority by those platforms.
-Users will be able to customise the media offer on devices and interfaces and change the default settings to reflect their own personal preferences.
-A European Board for Media Services, comprised of national media authorities, will be set up to assess the application of these rules, prepare guidelines on media regulation and issue opinions on national measures that affect media markets.
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