With Nafisa HASANOVA, Head of Research at Global Media Registry, and Patrick PELTZ, project officer of the “Feindbild Journalist:in” for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).
Moderated by Jamie SMITH-MAILLET, freelance journalist for the BBC and The Herald/educator at EPJT.
Key issues
Germany’s media and journalism landscape is in flux: while the nation still reveals favourable findings in terms of its economic and legal indicators according to RSF, recent publications reveal a threat to journalists’ work and the challenges of a high level of media concentration. With a the public broadcast legislation review also looming, the country is questioning how its de-centralised model of journalism output will face the challenges of new technology and AI. A panel of experts explores these topics.
What they said:
Nafisa Hasanova (Head of Research at Global Media Registry): “We restrain ourselves from making recommendations, but [it] shows where the weaknesses are in the market and where something needs to be done.”
“In some countries, governments were pleased to see such a database and were actively using, for instance, in Ireland. […] In other countries, the database was used against politicians in countries of conflict of interest cases.”
“The role of trust in public media was about 60%.”
Patrick Peltz (project officer of the “Feindbild Journalist:in” for the ECPMF): “Freelancers are disproportionately affected because they don’t have a media behind them which makes vulnerable [to violence].”
“After the Coronavirus pandemic, the physical attacks on journalists rose, particularly by far-right activists.”
“This a very ambivalent field. Yes, police is here to protect press freedom, but we see also sometimes that is not the case.”
Takeaways
Even in a democratic and major European country like Germany, there are dangers to freedom of the press. It manifests in terms of ownership with too much concentration. Sometimes, people don’t know who is really behind the media and which interests they truly serve. Apart from the economic point of view, there is also an increasing physical danger of journalistic activities in the profession. Some journalists are more targeted and more at risk than others, especially freelancers, by political activists. On top of these two main themes of concern, there is also a climate of uncertainty in the country with public broadcast legislation under review. Even if German people tend to trust more public media outlets, doubt remains.
Théo Lheure (EPJT)