EU: Include independent media as a key partner in the strengthening of democratic resilience
Independent media are an indispensable actor in democratic resilience: this is the core message of a new position paper by Free Press Unlimited (FPU) and ARTICLE 19 Europe, which calls for a meaningful role for independent media in the process of strengthening democracies in Europe, including the response to FIMI and disinformation. The paper stresses that independent media are a prerequisite for democratic resilience, while not including them in collective efforts would be itself a security risk.
Read the full paper
Faced with increasing threats against European democracies, the European Union and European countries aim to strengthen the resilience of their democratic institutions and citizens. They recognise that this requires a whole-of-society approach, in which governments, EU Institutions, civil society, academics and other relevant stakeholders join forces. To this end, national centres are established across Europe as well as a European Centre. ARTICLE 19 Europe and Free Press Unlimited argue that independent media fulfil an indispensable role in this effort.
The European Centre for Democratic Resilience (ECDR) is the flagship initiative of the European Democracy Shield. It is envisaged as a strategic hub to strengthen the EU's collective capacity to anticipate, detect and respond to threats to democratic systems.
Independent media are indispensable for democratic resilience for two main reasons: their role spans the response to threats, from early warning to structural prevention, and they help address those threats before they spread.
Their contribution runs from early warning to long-term prevention. Investigative and local journalists expose more than false narratives: they uncover the power structures, tactics and financial flows behind disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) campaigns. They give citizens the context and nuance that polarising narratives lack, tailored to the communities they serve. In a crisis, they are the trusted source that people turn to.
This also makes their role preventive. Foreign disinformation succeeds mainly when domestic actors enable and amplify it, and independent reporting reduces that impact, helping to prepare audiences before false narratives spread. That depends on trust built over many years. Reach is getting cheaper through technology and artificial intelligence, but this trust cannot be established overnight.
Free Press Unlimited and ARTICLE 19 Europe argue that strengthening independent media must be a key strategic objective of the ECDR and that independent media should be involved from the outset in the ECDR's multi-stakeholder exchanges, with firm safeguards for editorial independence and source protection.
Our recommendations to EU policy makers
- Ensure a meaningful role for independent media in the ECDR's information exchange system
- Include independent media in the Stakeholder Platform on a permanent basis
- Ensure a coordinated exchange channel between national centres and the ECDR, informed by voices of local journalists
- Make media freedom and journalist safety a core ECDR priority within its responses to protect democratic resilience
- Assess ECDR projects for its impact on independent media
- Dedicate adequate funding to media freedom and journalist protection in the next Multiannual Financial Framework
This position paper was developed by Free Press Unlimited and ARTICLE 19 Europe as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries, and Ukraine. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.
