Access Info Europe, a human rights organisation dedicated to promoting and protecting the right of access to information in Europe, in collaboration with the Open Society Media Program have launched a global campaign for the endorsement of the 10 recommendations on Transparency of Media Ownership (TMO).
The ten recommendations on transparency of media ownership is the outcome of a research and analysis conducted by Access Info Europe and the Open Society Media Program in 19 European countries and Morocco which reveals that the legal frameworks in most countries are insufficient to guarantee transparency of media ownership.
Released in November 2013, it sets out the structure for ensuring transparency of media ownership. .
Some of the key findings are:
- In only nine of the 20 countries can the public find out the actual owners of broadcast media from reporting to media regulators or to company registers.
- Disclosure to media regulators of beneficial (ultimate) owners of media outlets is not currently required in most of the countries.
- There is no unified or standard approach to collecting or requiring disclosure to the public of media ownership data, particularly with regard to print and online media.
The recommendations were drafted with the aim of promoting a specific outcome which is that the public and media authorities are able to find out who owns and controls the media in their countries. They also give a description of how the legal framework of every country should be structured to ensure that the public can have knowledge of who owns and controls media outlets.
They were presented to international organisations including the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and have been topic of discussion at events held by the European Commission in Brussels. They have also been subject to a public consultation in which over 100 media experts participated.
In its first step to demanding stronger legislation from the government on the issue of media ownership, Access Info Europe has called on organizations and the media for endorsements of the 10 recommendations.
To endorse the campaign, individuals and groups are directed to visit http://bit.ly/1aMSHFZ. For the purpose of the campaign, a TMO advocacy pack which contains all information about the campaign has been created along with the campaign’s FAQs and research data and can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/1M9tEIo.
On April 29, 2015, Access Info Europe, the European Federations of Journalists, and the International Federation of Journalists called on the five Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression to endorse the Ten Recommendations on Transparency of Media Ownership to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2015.
For more information on the campaign, interviews, the country-by-country analysis, and any other news and updates, please visit: http://www.access-info.org/media-ownership-transparency or contact Victoria Anderica, Access Info Europe at victoria@access-info.org, +34 606 592 976
