CONGRESSES DECLARATIONS

The VI Congress of Publishers of Europe – Latin America Caribbean Media, in the willingness to contribute to peace, coexistence and prosperity of individuals and peoples, condemns without palliatives and firmly the invasion and war in Ukraine for its devastating human consequences and for the global economy. It shows its total solidarity with each affected citizen and especially with the colleagues and media that carry out their work from the places of the conflict. It also supports all journalists and technicians who are victims of censorship, persecution, threats or imprisonment by the Russian Government.

– Information is an inalienable right of all people, an essential instrument to ensure democracy and, with it, freedom, equality, culture, science, peaceful coexistence and development. It is essential in the denunciation of violence, of the powers that cause ideological persecution, of dictatorships in general, and of mafias and terrorism in particular, as well as the pressures of economic actors whose power conditions journalistic content. In his intellectual honesty, he must protect his sources, not tolerate censorship, or attend to pressures, whatever they may be. The work of the congressman must be guided by inquiring, persecuting, supervising all powers and seeking clarity in his presentation. Communication is a common good.

The protection of journalists in the exercise of their profession is requested in order to guarantee the right to responsible information of citizens, far from hate speech and discrimination.

– In a global world, the value of the journalist’s role is accentuated as the most suitable professional to channel information, subject to its demanding codes of ethics and social commitment to the common good. In the midst of so much challenge and exciting changes, journalism has to continue playing its essential role as a reference, as a legatee of the fundamental values reflected in the Declaration of the Rights of human beings.

– The reporter must seek the truth with transparency, legality, contrast his conclusions. It must be respectful of what happened, respect the rectification and the opinions or references emanating from any entity, administration or citizen.

– The VI Congress of Publishers Europe – Latin America Caribbean requests the protection of the public powers for the free exercise of communication by professionals. And it reiterates the need to establish a new supranational regulation in accordance with the framework of global influence of the media -ensuring the coexistence of local regulations-, in which the legitimate rights and freedom of each one in the exercise of the journalistic profession and in the defense of its culture.

– Regarding the draft “EU Law on Freedom of the Media” (Media Freedom Act / MFA) proposed by the European Commission, they request that it be carefully and exhaustively examined and, if necessary, reviewed by the legal services of national institutions and the EU to ensure that digital and print media publishing activities, which are subject to general laws at national level and self-regulation, remain the responsibility of Member States. In this sense, any type of state interference in the relationship between the editor and the editorial team is rejected. Publishers are responsible for overseeing the entire operation, from initial concept and design to financing, production and management of a newspaper or magazine, print or online, and assume all legal responsibility, along with the publisher, for the available to the public of the final published edition, and of any subsequent updates.

The key resources to promote trust in the media and freedom of the press are transparency and self-regulation, where media companies and brands thrive freely in the social space.

They function according to the principles of the private sector and with organizational forms of private law. They are in intellectual and economic competition with each other, in which the public authority cannot intervene as a matter of principle.

We fear that any interference by EU and national legislators in the editorial autonomy of media owners will jeopardize the independence and diversity of information. The right to define, maintain, change and trend a publication is a consequence of protected press freedom.

– On the contrary, regulatory improvements are requested in the following aspects:

Transparent allocation of government advertising: We support the obligation of public authorities to allocate funds for advertising in a fair, non-discriminatory and transparent manner, including government advertising on online platforms. The definition of state advertising should apply to all relevant public entities, including governments and state-owned or state-controlled companies, at any level, national, regional and local, without imposing thresholds. State investment in advertising should not be used based on political preferences, but above all on the basis of recognized professional standards that are impartially accessible to the target audience. Member States should make it clear which national regulators or bodies are competent to implement them.

Media ownership transparency is important and should include editorial responsibility. The European Commission is establishing a Media Ownership Monitor, to create a tool that clearly delineates where media ownership lies, making potential problems more visible and thus helping to improve understanding of the media market.
Very Lage Online Platforms (VLOPs) are required to respect our fundamental publishing rights. The Digital Services Act (DSA) passed by the EU Parliament and Council in 2021 allows “gatekeeper” online platforms to block access to or remove editorial content, not on the basis of court decisions, but entirely on the basis of your own private terms and conditions. This represents a dangerous threat to media freedom and freedom of expression.

Therefore, European publishers and broadcasters call for the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) to recognize the due protection of our fundamental rights and establish due process for how online platforms treat lawful content under editorial control and legal responsibility of the publisher (or broadcaster). Large online platforms should be prohibited from removing, denying or disabling access, suspending or otherwise interfering with lawful content from media service providers or their respective accounts.

– It is assumed as an unequivocal commitment of the media with culture, fundamentally with minorities, at risk of exclusion or disappearance. For this reason, it is proposed to sponsor and support artistic manifestations in areas such as language, writing, painting, sculpture, music, television, cinema, architecture, photography and, in general, all fields of creation. . Communication must be committed to defending the rights of authors and creators, and claim their fair reward.

– Congress requires actions and a clear editorial line from communication companies. And it requests means so that the information industry can consolidate production, training -continuous recycling, professional self-improvement-, dissemination, exchange of products, services, and scientific and technological collaboration. As well as the implementation of strategies that allow strengthening the presence of the area’s products in global markets, implementing joint sales and marketing systems and ensuring access to development plans and international financial participation.

It defends the Support for the autonomous economic viability of the independent and pluralistic journalistic offer. For this and for the sake of the stability of democracies, we demand regulatory improvements in the field of intellectual property and related rights that allow publishers to negotiate on fair terms with the dominant digital gatekeepers regarding the commercial use of branded editorial content. The European Union, Australia and now also Canada are good examples that should also be developed in Latin America.

The importance of professional training for journalists is also stressed. It is a labor right that journalistic companies must apply on a regular basis to be able to carry out the activity with the capacity to delve into the issues and the management of new technologies. In particular, it alludes to the responsibility that a good higher university education has for the performance of the profession by young people who want to be journalists.

In the same way, it is essential to explain the role and use of the media by society. Journalists have to make every effort to explain who they are and what work they do, in schools of all levels.

– The Congress honors and recognizes the colleagues who have died or been injured in the exercise of their profession, especially those who reported in areas of armed, political or social conflicts, and also those imprisoned and persecuted in many regions of the world . Specifically, the congressmen want to refer to the situation of Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist for Gazeta Wyborcza, sentenced on February 8, 2023 in Belarus, to 8 years in prison with a rigorous regime for “inciting hatred” and trying to “rehabilitate the Nazism”. He was sentenced by a Grodno court in a secret, closed-door hearing. Poczobut works for the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza in Belarus, where he lives. He had been imprisoned since March 2021. The regime offered to release him if he pleaded for mercy and promised to leave Belarus forever. Poczobut rejected the offer.

In the same way, the congressmen want to warn of the terrible conditions in which the journalistic profession is practiced in Mexico with continuous threats, repeated murders of professionals by organized crime.

– Likewise, they demand that the necessary guarantees be provided to journalists and the media to avoid judicial harassment, the practice of disproportionate precautionary measures, including the seizure of salaries and patrimonial assets, as well as that the corresponding laws be modified in order to to decriminalize slander and insult. It is unacceptable that from a position of economic and/or political power there is an attempt to control the free exercise of journalism, freedom of expression and the right to information.
– The conviction is proclaimed that journalists must contribute effectively and decisively to dignify the profession with a responsible exercise, improving the relationship with society -raise the public recognition of professionals, to better serve in the construction of a more peaceful and healthy, better informed, more educated and entertained.

– And finally, the congressmen, by mutual agreement, request the organization of the congress to hold it annually, in order to increase as much as possible the contacts between the publishers of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean. Likewise, the constitution of a CELAC-UE Publishers Network was decided, whose main purpose will be the continuous exchange of information regarding the violation of freedom of expression and the right to information in the two regions. Also to expand the informative presence of the two continents in each country and to share the good practices of the journalistic exercise.