Media Ethics Committee joins bar association in condemning EU plan on freedom of the press

The Committee for Media Ethics (CME) calls on the executive and legislate authorities, the permanent representative of Cyprus to the European Union, Cypriot Members of the European Parliament, the Law Commissioner, political parties, and any competent body, person, or organisation, to take a clear stand against the provisions in No. 4(2) of the proposed regulation of the European Parliament and Council on the establishment of a common framework for media services in the Single Market (European Act on freedom of the press) and amending Directive 2010/13/EU.

The extent and degree to which the aforementioned provisions leave open the possibility of surveillance of news outlets, workers, the families of the owners of news outlets, the families of their workers, or other such actions, must be rejected as unacceptable and inconsistent with the principles which the proposed regulation is supposed to seek and serve.

The principles of independence of the media and journalists, confidentiality of communication and of work, and the protection of their sources, are the cornerstone of the operation of news outlets and the realisation of their mission to keep citizens informed.

The general invocation of public interest and the obvious confusion of the personal privacy of an individual with their status as the owner of a news outlet or a worker thereof, as well as the involvement of the same media, cannot constitute a legal basis or a value background for such an aberration in the legislation in question.

We welcome today’s intervention from the Pancyprian Bar Association on the matter. We are in complete agreement with it, and we are adopting in its entirety its analysis of the protection of privacy and sources of information.

In the domestic legal order, the possibility of surveillance of a person has already been introduced on the basis of the Protection of Privacy of Private Communication (Monitoring Conversations and Access to Recorded Content of Private Communication) Law, as amended by the Law 13(I)/2020.

The drastic and exceptional possibility of surveillance of an individual concerns people in their capacity as private citizens and is carried out under very specific conditions and with a relevant court order following the requisite application. Already, the overconcentration of powers in institutional bodies as well as concerns about political or state intervention in other areas of competence make the existing arrangements controversial.

The combination of such tools through the proposed European legislation regarding the media, its owners, and workers, or even members of their families, is incomprehensible, disproportionate, and unacceptable in the circumstances, since it erases the line between an individual’s personal privacy and that of the owner of worker in the media.

Insistence on voting through the aforementioned proposed provisions in No. 4(2) if the draft regulation by the organised institutions of the Republic of Cyprus will oblige us not only to move to overturn the regulation but also to amend the existing national legislation on surveillance with the express exemption of the media, its owners, its workers, and their families from the relevant provisions.

Furthermore, we inform you that the CME has taken the decision to carry out a campaign to inform the public about the proposed regulation and about the attitude of domestic competent bodies and authorities regarding the provisions in question.