Ursula von der Leyen presented plans in the European Parliament for a new media support program and increased EU funding for traditional establishment media.
Sweden Democrats’ EU parliamentarian Dick Erixon calls the EU Commission President’s speech “pure George Orwell’s 1984” and accuses von der Leyen of wanting to stifle freedom of expression.
In her speech to the European Parliament, the heavily criticized EU Commission President complained about how traditional establishment media are struggling for survival and spoke about rural areas where the local newspaper has become “a nostalgic memory” while warning that this has created “news deserts where disinformation thrives”.
As a solution, von der Leyen presented a “Media Resilience Programme” that will actively support what she and other EU power holders consider to be independent journalism and media literacy.
She also announced that the EU Commission proposes to “significantly boost funding for media” in the next EU budget, but only certain media will be able to access EU citizens’ tax money.
“Wants to protect legacy media”
Dick Erixon, the Sweden Democrats’ representative in the European Parliament, is among several who are directing very harsh criticism at the proposals.
“Deplorable speech by Ursula von der Leyen: Wants state authorities to protect legacy media from source criticism. It was a particularly divisive speech we heard in the European Parliament today. Ursula spoke about freedom but wants to stifle freedom of expression”, he states.
He is particularly critical of von der Leyen’s statement that the EU should “protect” traditional media.
“The EU will protect (yes, ‘protect’) legacy media in a new media program. Since paper newspapers are just a memory, ‘news deserts where disinformation thrives’ are created. Therefore, citizens need journalism they can ‘trust'”, Erixon writes sarcastically.
Warned about autocrats
In her speech, von der Leyen also claimed that independent media are under attack from “autocrats” who want to take control of them.
“The first step in an autocrat’s playbook is always to capture independent media. Because this enables backsliding and corruption to happen in the dark”, she proclaimed dramatically.
“A free press is the backbone of any democracy”, she then claimed and promised that the EU will “support Europe’s press to remain free”.
Dick Erixon points out, however, that von der Leyen and her allies hardly have any interest in a truly independent media landscape and that her rhetoric is rather about citizens blindly trusting what establishment media say and write – while forums that EU leaders don’t control should be made suspicious and censored.
“For Ursula, critical source examination of power holders and the establishment is of no value. ‘Trust traditional media’ was her message, while she believes that social media serves the purposes of darkness and corruption. It’s pure George Orwell’s 1984”, he says.
Wants to limit social media for children
Von der Leyen also wants to introduce restrictions on children’s use of social media. She accused the platforms of using “algorithms that prey on children’s vulnerabilities with the explicit purpose of creating addictions” and announced that an expert panel will develop proposals for EU restrictions before the end of the year.
“Our friends in Australia are pioneering a social media restriction. I am watching the implementation of their policy closely to see what next steps we can take here in Europe”, von der Leyen said.
Von der Leyen gave no further details in her speech about how the media support program will work, what criteria will be used to distribute support, or how large a budget is planned for the program. She also did not specify who will define what counts as “disinformation” or “independent media”.
The EU Commission has also proposed using private capital to support certain media, without further explaining how this will work.
