One year on, most EU member states flouting the European Media Freedom Act

In two days, the European Commission will publish its annual Rule of Law Report, which includes an assessment of how effectively EU member states are performing in protecting press freedom. Today, RSF is publishing the findings of a year-long assessment of the implementation of a key EU legislation, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) at the national level, focusing on five key areas.

Public service media vulnerable to political interference and budgetary cuts

Despite the enduring crisis of Europe's public service media, many EU member states are reluctant to adopt the required measures to protect them from undue editorial interference and unstable funding. On the other hand, among the top performers, Sweden stands out for adopting, as early as October 2025, a broad public service reform that included EMFA-related provisions to strengthen the independence of the public broadcaster. Very recently, in Hungary, Peter Magyar's new ruling majority adopted a bill leading to a comprehensive overhaul of public broadcasting governance and funding, aiming to bring it into line with EMFA requirements.

However, apart from these few positive developments, many public service media organisations in Europe currently are subject to political pressure and/or are left with funding arrangements that make them vulnerable to political interference. This is the case, for example, in France, where a parliamentary report has proposed transforming the public broadcaster into a state-controlled media organisation. In Czechia and Lithuania, initiatives that would undermine the independence and funding of the public broadcaster have gained political momentum, despite being clearly incompatible with the EMFA. Although Greece's public media leadership is now selected through a formal competition, the government still makes the final choice. In Slovakia, the absence of an EMFA-compliant legal framework to protect the independence of the public broadcaster led RSF to file a complaint with the national media regulator, alleging the lack of impartiality in the broadcaster's news coverage.

The situation is no less concerning in other member states, such as Malta, Poland and Bulgaria, where projects to reform the public broadcast media have so far stalled. In Romania, efforts to reform the legal framework and governance of public broadcasters have, so far, not achieved their intended outcomes, largely because political stakeholders have shown limited willingness to reduce the influence they currently exercise over the appointment and dismissal of the leadership of public media organisations.

Ensuring journalists' rights remains a challenge

Without the EMFA's safeguards securely in place, journalists' rights keep being infringed - notably the protection of source confidentiality. Across the EU, reporters continue to face unlawful surveillance, yet, to date, almost no member state has amended its national legal framework to bring it into line with EMFA Article 4 which protects journalists from being forced to disclose their sources.

In Slovenia, a recent legislative amendment now creates risks for journalists to disclose their sources during parliamentary investigations. Meanwhile, there is little evidence of alignment in countries like Greece and Italy, where Article 4 could have a serious positive impact given the heavy concerns over the documented surveillance of journalists.

Media concentration rules: the weakest point

The implementation of Article 22 of the EMFA, which requires member states to assess the impact media mergers have on media pluralism and editorial independence, remains the greatest area of concern. The economic challenges facing the EU media sector have accelerated market consolidation, which ultimately undermines media pluralism.

According to RSF's assessment, many member states still lack a dedicated "media pluralism test" in their national law, with Finland, Portugal and Sweden among the few exceptions. In the Netherlands, Article 22 of the EMFA has been applied in practice even though the national legal framework governing media concentration has not yet been updated.

Several other member states are in the process of reforming their competition laws to incorporate the media pluralism test. In Belgium, a recent merger between two major media companies was approved after the acquiring party offered commitments to preserve media pluralism and editorial independence. However, there is no guarantee that the commitments made in this regard will be sufficient. Elsewhere, such as Italy or in France, delays in adopting reforms have resulted in media mergers being assessed under outdated legal frameworks rather than the new EMFA standards.

Slow progress on state advertising regulations

RSF is concerned by the limited progress made by member states in addressing the risks of political influence and market distortion associated with state advertising. Article 25 of the EMFA requires state advertising to be allocated in accordance with the principles of fairness, transparency and non-discrimination. However, in most member states, the legal frameworks governing state advertising expenditure have yet to be revised.

Apart from Greece, Finland and Slovakia, no member state has completed the necessary legislative reforms. In Germany, for instance, although information on State advertising expenditure is published annually, it is only made available in response to parliamentary questions.

Transparency on media ownership: encouraging progress, but major gaps remain

The most visible progress concerns Article 6 of the EMFA, which requires member states to establish and maintain a national media ownership database. Several member states have strengthened disclosure requirements or are updating their legislation to comply with the new EU standards. In Finland, for example, the law now requires media service providers to submit relevant information to Traficom, the authority responsible for maintaining and publishing a media ownership database. In Greece, all media service providers are now required to disclose ownership information by the end of June 2026.

By contrast, a worrying number of member states have not yet established a media ownership database as required by EMFA Article 6: Austria, Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Denmark, Spain and more. In Germany, a media ownership database called the KEK database already exists, but currently lacks key data, such as the total annual amount of public funds for state advertising allocated to media and the total annual amount of advertising revenues received from third-country public authorities or entities. In Spain, the government's draft legislation requiring media to disclose their owners has yet to be reviewed by Parliament.