Politico on media freedom in EU: Sanchez’s moves like out of Vucic’s playbook

After months of silence in the face of unprecedented anti-government protests in Serbia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finally rebuked Belgrade for its failure to deliver on EU reforms, recalled Politico.

It said that von der Leyen called on Serbia to “take decisive steps towards media freedom, the fight against corruption, and the electoral reform.”

“Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic — a former propaganda minister — has spent a decade consolidating his party’s grip on power, forcefully asserting control over the country’s media. And in October 2023, the Serbian government passed two controversial laws allowing state-owned companies to enter the media space, removing protective restrictions put in place after the Slobodan Milosevic era.

The laws compounded a media environment already crowded by government influence, while the EU ignored warnings from media associations that foresaw their antidemocratic impact,” the portal said.

It took an unprecedented escalation — mass protests against Vucic and his government, as well as physical attacks on the country’s few remaining independent journalists — for the EU to break its silence, it added.

In theory, the reform agenda imposed by the EU accession process should have given the Commission some leverage. Yet, in recent years, several EU candidate countries including Serbia, Turkey, and Georgia have engaged in some of the most egregious crackdowns on independent media, reported Politico.

It added that it is rather unsurprising these countries believe such measures won’t hamper their path to membership, as several EU countries have been doing the very same.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Hungary, for example, sued the EU in the European Court of Justice last year over the passage of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) — the EU’s first attempt at harmonizing laws protecting media pluralism and independence.

The case argues that the act exceeds the EU’s powers and meddles in the sovereignty of its member countries.

Meanwhile, in Slovakia, populist leader Robert Fico dissolved the public broadcaster RTVS and established a new entity, STVR. The move allowed for a leadership overhaul and greater control over editorial content.

But it’s not just Orban and Fico — the EU’s longstanding provocateurs — who are setting a bad example.

“Some of the bloc’s most influential members are also moving in the wrong direction,” that is, backsliding when it comes to freedom of the press, said Politico, citing a report the Civil Liberties Union for Europe released in March.

The report singled out Italy for “unprecedented levels of political interference” in the country’s public broadcaster, and labelled Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government as one of the EU’s five worst offenders on media freedom.

Meanwhile, recent moves by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appear to be straight out of the Vucic playbook, reported Politico.

In July 2024, Sanchez announced media law reforms aimed at countering “pseudo-media,” but the result exploited the EMFA to limit which organizations qualify for public funding.

Last year, the Spanish government acquired a 10 percent stake in the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica and replaced its CEO with a government loyalist. According to media reports, it is now using this position to influence shareholder votes in Promontora de Informaciones SA (PRISA), the owner of Spain’s largest newspaper El Pais, to replace its leadership and launch a pro-government television station.

EU members with a tendency to control the media and steer the political narrative will be closely monitoring how the bloc responds to the EMFA’s selective implementation in troublesome countries like Hungary and Slovakia, said Politco.

It added that it is expected the EU will initiate infringement procedures, most likely using Orban and Fico as examples to deter other European leaders like Meloni and Sanchez from interpreting the act to suit their own agendas.

“If the EU is to influence the likes of Vucic and other aspiring autocrats in EU candidate countries, its key members must lead by example. Serbia’s protestors see the EU as a beacon of hope for democracy. The bloc cannot afford to let them down,” reported Polico.