Every day, the correspondents’ club describes how the same news story is illustrated in other countries.
On Tuesday October 3, members of the European Parliament voted on a text to strengthen the transparency and independence of the media in Europe, the Media Freedom Act. At the same time, in India, the police carried out searches throughout the country, in around a hundred offices and homes of journalists.
>> General information information: four questions on the secrecy of sources, and the limits of this protection granted to journalists
A law in the European Parliament for media independence
In the European legislative process, this is a step to succeed in obliging, by law, Member States to guarantee media pluralism and to protect their independence from governmental, political, economic or other interference. private and ultimately, to guarantee the secrecy of the sources. This is a law in response to the attacks and threats that the media and the press have suffered for several years now in Europe. “We have many countries where the media are threatened. We are thinking of Hungary, Poland or the spying on journalists in Greece,” explains Sabine Verheyen, president of the Culture Commission in the European Parliament, member of the EPP, and rapporteur of this Media Freedom Act.
Now discussions will begin with member states. They promise to be difficult because within the Council, and at the initiative of France, we would like to see many more exceptions to the secrecy of sources, in the name “national security” notably. The institutions hope to reach a final agreement next February, before the end of the Spanish presidency.
In India, police raid a media outlet known to be critical of the government
In India, police carried out searches across the country on Tuesday in around a hundred offices and homes of journalists. Police say they are investigating questionable funding of the news site Newsclick by an entity allegedly working for Chinese interests, and they filed a complaint in August for criminal conspiracy and terrorist activity. Many journalists on the site have therefore been questioned, their computers and phones cloned, which puts their sensitive information and their sources at risk. Many other contributors were also raided, such as a human rights activist, a historian and a satirical comedian. The site’s editor-in-chief and human resources manager were then detained.
This crackdown on the media is increasingly common. The BBC underwent a similar raid in February after the broadcast of a documentary critical of the Prime Minister. Indian journalists or their newspapers are regularly subject to criminal prosecution. YouTube sites and channels therefore represent one of the last independent information spaces in India, and are therefore the target of the authorities.