The smart media regulation Jourová talked about would harm the so-called “bad” media, disinformation distributors, and it would not apply only to websites but also to print. Quality is supposed to be on public channels and in independent mainstream media that “we have to support (…) more broadly than just letting the market work”.
What the smart regulation is supposed to be, is not known yet. To the Czech daily E15, who asked the question, the Commissioner’s spokesperson only said that Jourova did not propose any new legislation but she meant it generally.
There is still a tradition of freedom of speech in Europe so strong that it sounds unimaginable and paranoid. However, the two strongest EU member states – France and, in weaker terms, Germany – have already put in place state aid for the press, and it did not lead to an increase of criticism towards governments in any of these cases.
Moreover, Věra Jourová is not quite a self-sufficient person in Brussels, but rather a medium through which the prevailing conventions speak. Over time, she has developed into some seismograph of moods prevailing in the heart of the EU. According to the performance in Vienna, it looks like an advanced despair.
