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What is the European Media Freedom Act?

The first cross-border EU regulation establishing rules to protect the independence and pluralism of the media for Member States is now a reality. It was adopted in early 2024 and entered into full force on August 8, 2025.

As a regulation rather than a directive, which highlights its binding nature, the EMFA applies directly without the need for national transposition into the domestic law of Member States, although many of its articles require national legislation to be revised in order to align with its requirements. The central provisions of the regulation include:

  • Article 3: right of access to pluralistic and independent content.
  • Article 4: protection of journalists’ sources and prohibition of unjustified surveillance.
  • Article 5: Ensuring the independence and funding of public broadcasting.
  • Article 18: Enhancing transparency and accountability in the digital environment.

Beyond the basic legal stuff we already mentioned, the EMFA includes safeguards that are based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights. These include the protection of freedom of information, editorial independence, and cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity. At the same time, extremely strict criteria are set for the justification of surveillance or disclosure of journalistic sources by judicial authorities, while the use of surveillance software is only provided for in cases of serious crime and under strict proportionality of actions. Another innovation is the introduction of an obligation for each Member State to create and maintain public databases recording the ownership structure, sources of funding (including state advertising) and any links with third countries, with the aim of enhancing the transparency of the state and the media. 

The European Commission emphasizes that the regulation introduces “unprecedented safeguards” for journalists, limits the arbitrary removal of content by large online platforms, and establishes the European Board for Media Services to oversee its implementation.

With August 8, 2025, being designated by the European Parliament as a “milestone for press freedom in the EU,” Vice-President Sabine Verheyen stressed that “the real value of the EMFA will be judged in practice, not in words,” while the Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education, Nela Ril, called on Member States to consistently implement its provisions, expressing concern about the declining state of press freedom in some parts of Europe.

The EMFA’s power coincides with a period of increasing pressure and curtailment of press freedom, with phenomena such as the overconcentration of media ownership, political interference in public broadcasters, and the use of spyware against journalists. The new regulatory framework aims to be a real bulwark against these trends, but it’s clear that its practical implementation will depend on the political will of Member States to proceed with radical reforms and comply fully with its binding provisions, so that it does not remain merely a “letter of the law.” In other words, the challenge is nothing less than transforming this rule into a culture, into a living and tangible guarantee of press freedom throughout the EU.

In the same context of developments regarding freedom of the press, in the summer of 2025, the EUI’s Media Pluralism Monitor General Report from the Center of Media Pluralism and Freedom was published, with Hungary, Greece, Malta, and Slovenia being classified as “high risk” in many indicators. Malta, and Slovenia being classified as “high risk” in many indicators. The problems of each country have their own particularities but also several commonalities: Hungary has seen systematic interference in the independence of the media, as well as politically controlled distribution of state advertising and overconcentration of ownership. Further south, in Greece, there are pressing issues of political dependence of the media, transparency, overconcentration of ownership, and an inadequate framework for protecting journalists—both from SLAPPs and from documented attacks, especially during the coverage of demonstrations, with no results in investigations into police violence. In the Mediterranean context, Malta continues to be burdened by the legacy of the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case, with inadequate institutional reforms and transparency related, among other things, to the allocation of state advertising, as well as the growing trend of SLAPP cases, normalising an environment of political influence and targeting of journalists. The risk indicators for the media in Slovenia are also high, despite the fact that the country has made progress in the area of media freedom.

The European Commission adopted a positive tone regarding the activation of EMFA, presenting an optimistic outlook, with Commissioner Michael McGrath stating that EMFA ensures that “news will be driven by facts, not by business or political agendas.”

The EFJ, which was actively involved in the negotiations, called it a “historic” day and linked the EMFA to other important regulatory frameworks such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), emphasizing the need to make it a “real shield” for the protection of journalism.

The legislative architecture

As noted, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) is a regulation and therefore directly applicable in all Member States. One of the radical, innovative features of the EMFA is that it can be implemented without the need for adoption at national level, which in practice means that journalists, media outlets, organizations to appeal to both national and European courts to defend their rights—however, this legal flexibility may prove insufficient in environments where judicial systems either delay proceedings or are subject to systematic political interference. 

In this new active institutional charter, does the European Board for Media Services acquire expanded powers? From an advisory role, it can issue binding opinions to national regulatory authorities, especially when media independence or market pluralism is at worrying levels, strengthening the EU’s ability to intervene in situations of systematic control of the media by state or oligarchic actors. At the same time, it should be noted that Article 21 of the EMFA, concerning the concentration of ownership in the media, provides a tool for breaking up monopolies and oligopolies, provided that it is not applied in a non-transparent manner or subject to political interference. However, this requires resources and expertise, which are often lacking in national authorities. The overall success of the EMFA is directly dependent on its consistent application and on other EU legislation such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), the DSA, and the GDPR.

Afterword

The European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) is not just another EU legislative text; it will be a core test of the EU’s ability to defend fundamental values and its actors, such as journalists who advocate for the public interest, finding themselves confronted by states, business interests, and threats, if not attacks, against them. The provision of mechanisms to control media ownership concentration constitutes an unprecedented supranational shield for pluralism and accountability, but it should not be forgotten that the implementation of these provisions will be judged in a politically unequal landscape. Long story short, member states have different traditions, priorities, and, in some cases, limited institutional will when it comes to adapting to common standards.

Therefore, if national reflexes are sluggish, this requires not only the activation of official EU institutions, but also vigilance on the part of civil society and the journalistic community, because our times have already shown the dangers of information, both old and new. EMFA can act as the institutional “counterweight” that will prevent further erosion of press freedom in Europe, provided that all those involved ultimately assume their share of responsibility.

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