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Russian trolls spreading disinformation across the European Union government in the EU spying on journalists business people buying newspapers to gain influence media Freedom appears under attack from outside and within the block that is why the European commission says it is introducing new legislation to protect free and independent journalism the European media Freedom Act let's talk about that with Viera eurova the European commission vice president charged with EU values and transparency thank you for being with us thank you very much for your interest Madam vice president media freedom in the European Union is a fundamental right so how can it be that this right is under threat right now how did we get there uh we saw this trend over several years we have good data year by year comparing that there is really a negative Trend political attacks uh economic distress spying journalists worsening situation for the journalists when it comes to their safety abusing justice system against journalists so you ask about how it is possible well we're very lying a lot on member states rules and legislation and at some moment we realized wait a minute this is funny rep and problem and if we let the trend continue if the media will be weakened Beyond some line we will not be able to see democracy protected sufficiently so that's why we are coming with the with the legal and binding rules and I believe that uh we are ahead of a difficult legislative process maybe but I'm ready ready to push it through because I believe we need it so you're saying that the member states are to blame for the situation no I would not formulate that I I just realized that we have a very uh uneven uh standard and level of protection of media in Our member states there are countries where there are a lot of safeguards and I can name Germany uh that's why I had to give a lot of promises to different German uh figures and politicians and also the media organizations that we are not going to destroy the systems which work well but I also try to convince everybody that there are gaps there are there is this trend uh uh we see that without legally mining rules the media will be the victims of of the the worsening situation just look at the platforms and their power the the money which went to the big platforms which weakened the media economically look at some states which try to use the political power to influence the editorial content look at using the spyware against the journalists you named at the beginning the problems we face you know the commission says that this media Freedom Act would enhance uh media Independence and transparency how is it going to do it exactly we are focusing on several big things on the basis of the problems identified so first of all we are warning the member states the political layer do not interfere let the journalists do the job don't use the spyware don't push them to disclose the sources of information uh at the same time we are alerting uh when it comes to Public Service Media we believe that the right of people to have objective information and neutral kind of news that we need to see in all the member states highly professional Public Service Media not State Media or Party media we see a lot of public money being sent to Media through advertising and we want to see how much and to which media in other words we want to see more transparency in how the public money is used whether you just buy the space or whether you also buy some editorial gratitude and we don't see a lot of information regarding transparency of ownership of media in a recent interview you said that Hungary often criticized for its handling of media was an inspiration for the bill what exactly did you mean by that well of course we had to we had in mind several concrete cases when I was asked very intensively what will the commission do in this house I was grilled so many times and I had to repeat well we do not have any tool in hand we cannot act when we see something wrong happening in Hungary or in Poland or we had an issue in Slovenia we see some negative Trend in in many other member states and uh you know you reply nine times I cannot do anything and the 10th time you are not willing to repeat it anymore so the solution is the European law I will honestly try to uh convince everybody that this is a good thing we will have a maybe difficult legislative process but everybody has to admit that the media are not protected enough in Europe but talking about Hungary will this legislation have immediate effects on Hungary for instance on media owned by oligarchs close to the government of course it cannot be used retroactively sorry I'm a lawyer so I have to mention that but this law sets the criteria for which will be used for assessment of concentration of media ownership and I believe that the Monopoly kesma which we see in Hungary functioning would not be possible would not have been possible with such a loss and critics in Hungary are already saying that this proposed legislation is a concealed threat to freedom of speech so is the commission protecting their freedom of media by restricting freedom of speech by restricting opinions that the commission doesn't like this is a fatal misunderstanding I don't know if I made some mistake in communication but vice versa we warned by this law to increase the protection of the freedom of speech that's why I also mentioned the platforms that there should be special treatment for the professional journalists to be able to place their opinions and their news and the digital space and um I have to repeat that we are not regulating media themselves we are regulating the space for the media the European Parliament this week said that Hungary is a systemic threat to EU values as a commissioner in charge of those values do you believe that governments like the one in Budapest should have a space in the European Union uh you can imagine the commission shares a lot of concerns which are in the resolution which was already in the previous one we see issues in Judiciary System we discuss the media shrinking space for the Civil Society there are thousands of of little or bigger things which caused some kind of erosion of the of the Hungarian democracy and so this is now the choice for for Hungary to prove that they belong to the club of European Democratic countries well it's my job to have a dialogue with Hungary or to use the tools which I have as a commissioner to try to convince them through different measures to come back and in the past Victor Orban the Hungarian prime minister already verbally attacked you and demanded you a resignation um so are you not afraid of a backlash in Hungary and in other countries for instance Poland because of this legislation ah when you enter politics you cannot take things personally I had several other enemies I realized that there is something on the slogan It's My slogan tell me who your enemies are and I will tell you who you are and I was not happy that Mr Orman was attacking me but I was happy that Ursula from The Lion protected me that she she was supporting me and I think that uh uh in general it is not a good thing that in politics we do not speak about opponents but more we speak about adversaries or enemies uh I think that we should come back to some kind of decent politics where we work with the arguments rather than with offenses but how does it feel to have an European a European leader as your enemy well it sounds cynical if I say I got used to it and I also have a lot of friends and you grew up in the Communist Regime and then Czechoslovakia before the Iron Wall went down so how has this experience impacted your personal view of journalists and media it's uneasy to compare the time before the Revolution and after because we cannot speak any about any media in community Slovakia some newspaper there was TV but my father always was telling me do not believe anything what you read in newspaper it was a very important part of my education and equipment for the rest of my life today my message would be uh please people do not believe everything you read and here comes my fight against this information and news and now we have regimes like the one in Russia and the commission is saying you want to restrict foreign propaganda and disinformation but isn't this motion coming too late um you know we we have in DNA and Europe that we really protect the freedom of speech and the media doing the job must be protected but then we came to the point when we saw that Russia Today in Sputnik became just the war weapons not the media anymore so if it came late I think it came in the proper moment together with enhancing the support of the journalists in Ukraine and we are sending a lot of money to help the heroes also they are heroes working there in the battlefield Madam vice president thank you very much thank you very much