Friday

22nd Sep 2023

Analysis

Lessons learned by an EUobserver editor-in-chief

Listen to article

Before I joined the EUobserver, I worked in politics and advocacy, in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Being editor-in-chief of EUobserver was, for me, a first opportunity to look at the world from the "other side", media.

Now that I am going back to advocacy in the Middle East, I'd like to share what I have learned from two-and-a-half years of journalism.

Journalists are mavericks

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

I always loved to hang out with journalists. Most of them drink and smoke, or at least used to, and none get enough sleep.

As my habits are rather similar, it's no surprise that many of my friends are journalists.

Now I suddenly had journalists as colleagues, and I had to work with them during long days every day.

I learned that journalists cannot be cynics. They are inveterate critics, that's for sure. Sometimes too critical, as I found when I still worked in politics.

It's this critical instinct that makes most journalists to go that extra mile to find the truth, or get that story that explains just better what's really going on.

It must be said, you don't become a journalist for the money. You do it because you believe freedom and democracy are impossible without critical journalism.

Covid is bad for democracy

The Covid pandemic has been tough for almost everyone in the world.

Journalists have in many cases adapted their practices. Even so, important gaps in coverage have emerged that negatively impact democracy.

First of all, parliamentary scrutiny has often disappeared as plenaries and committees were unable to gather.

Secondly, press conferences were often scrapped - for example, the ones that were usually held after European summits.

When these summits were held online, there were often no doorstep comments, fewer leaks and far less opportunities to ask question at the summit's conclusion.

This meant that journalists, and thus the public, were frequently in the dark about the decisions taken and whether the leaders actually agreed with each other or had deep differences.

The EU's reputation as a bloodless bureaucracy was in some instances further entrenched.

The risk is that way European policy starts to look ever more like a series of imperial decrees.

The third way in which democracy suffered became clear in-between lockdowns, when some - but not all - journalists were invited to join press briefings.

During the last few European summits, some newspapers were invited by the office of EU Council president Charles Michel to the press room, and others not.

Without claiming bad faith of those who took these decisions, it remains a very uneasy situation in which the European Council decides who the 'good' journalists are and who the 'bad' ones are.

When dictators go after you

While the pandemic is hopefully going to be a temporary problem, there is another trend that is threatening journalism even more in my opinion: vexatious litigation.

The SLAPPs (or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are lawsuits brought by people or organisations intended to frighten journalists and making their work impossible by distracting them from their day jobs.

Journalists and newspapers, certainly the smaller ones, don't have the budgets to pay for lawyers nor do they have the time and resources to oversee lawsuits.

The powerful and the rich know this. That's why some now routinely threaten to sue journalists from the moment they are mentioned in anything less than a favourable way.

During the two-and-a-half years of being editor-in-chief, I had to deal with several of these SLAPPs.

The most notable one is without doubt a lawsuit from a firm which took us to court after we reported on evidence of its ties to the Lukashenko regime.

Luckily, journalism organisations are supporting us in this case. But the burden of these cases is growing.

Without new legislation that seeks to stop these kind of lawsuits before they wind up consuming the time and money of newspapers and journalists, independent and investigative journalism will face ever stronger headwinds.

It is a worldwide problem and it needs to be tackled urgently.

The danger of paid-content

Covid, lack of political transparency and SLAPPs are major challenges in and of themselves. But the media itself also has important questions to answer.

Too many European media outlets are actually hidden money machines. They write content on demand, and are paid for it.

The result is that a part of the news, and sometimes even all the news in some media follow the agendas of enterprises, lobbyists or governments.

I am not talking about advertisements, and not about content that is clearly labelled as sponsored, even though that too is sometimes problematic.

This paid-content is, of course, detrimental for trust in media. It is also discrediting those newspapers that do everything to remain independent and objective.

This is not the place to mention names, but the scale of these bad practices is something that shocked me in the last few years.

However, it is also true that these practices often point to a deeper problem: how can independent journalism be guaranteed in the future?

How will EU journalism survive?

News is massively and endlessly available on the web. Some newspapers can be read for free, while the paywalls of others are often easily circumvented.

That's why most people don't see why they should pay for news.

However, subscriptions are essential to keep journalism independent and of high quality.

I would have loved to see European institutions to take their responsibility and take group subscriptions for independent newspapers.

The European Parliament does, but most others hardly seem to care.

For clarity, I am not talking about sponsoring or advertising. I am talking about our major institutions leading by example and simply paying for news.

If the institutions would take out subscriptions for those EU outlets that do take the ethics of journalism seriously, then that would be an important boost for independent news.

No farewell to Europe

There are many reasons to be critical or even complain of the European Union. Often it reacts too slowly or too timidly.

But if we look at the evolution of the EU of the last 20 years, one cannot but be in awe of what has been achieved.

In just two decades the European Union introduced the euro, kept its internal borders open despite many challenges, created a common border control agency, abolished roaming, enlarged the bloc to 27 states (but lost one), and so forth.

One can look at the European Union through what it lacks, or through the lens of what it has created.

In my opinion, the European project is the most successful project for peace, prosperity and democracy in human history.

This project moves forward not despite criticism, but thanks to critical voices pushing for more cooperation, and more democratic transparency.

That is why European journalism is essential to the European project. That's also why I am proud that I have been part of it.

Journalism hit hard by corona crisis

An already fragile business model for journalism might be dealt a lethal blow in the corona crisis. And the freedom of the press itself is coming under extreme pressure, as governments take swift and debilitating measures fighting the pandemic.

EUobserver under attack in wider battle for EU free press

If EU citizens want to know the truth, then journalists need protection from malicious litigation, as EUobserver joined the list of targets, over an article about the late Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Column

Why the West is losing support

Europe and the US are seen as imposing rules upon the rest but not following these rules themselves. Europe is insisting on democracy, human rights and the rule of law in third countries — but not several EU member states.

Column

The Iranian regime's expiration date

This 'headscarf revolution' is about women's rights and human rights in general, plus police brutality. Moreover, it is a leaderless revolution that is not driven by a leader or a group, but erupted spontaneously.

Opinion

Orbán's 'revenge law' is an Orwellian crackdown on education

On Tuesday, the Hungarian parliament passed a troubling piece of legislation known by its critics as the 'revenge law', which aims to punish and intimidate teachers who dare to defy Viktor Orbán's regime. This law is a brutally oppressive tool.

Latest News

  1. Here's the headline of every op-ed imploring something to stop
  2. Report: Tax richest 0.5%, raise €213bn for EU coffers
  3. EU aid for Africa risks violating spending rules, Oxfam says
  4. Activists push €40bn fossil subsidies into Dutch-election spotlight
  5. Europe must Trump-proof its Ukraine arms supplies
  6. Antifascism and fascism are opposites, whatever elites say
  7. MEPs back Germany's Buch to lead ECB supervisory arm
  8. Russia to blame for Azerbaijan attack, EU says

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us