Over the month of July, the European Innovative Media Publishers met several Members of the European Parliament and representatives of the European Commission in order to discuss the proposed Copyright Directive. As leading platform of individual publishers and European National Associations of media companies (including AEEPP, ANSO, 300POLITYCA, DENNIK, Golem.de, Echo24.cz, Spiil and Meltygroup), the Coalition opposes the creation of a EU-wide neighbouring right as designed in art. 11 of the above mentioned Directive.
Víctor Sánchez Del Real, AEEPP, stated
“Spain already introduced a neighbouring right for press publishers, the AEDE fee or Canon, and the consequences have been devastating with small and online native publishers being hit the most. Diversity and competition shrunk dramatically. Is this what we want for the future of the EU?”
Matteo Rainisio, from ANSO, continued by saying,
“Article 11 limits citizens access to news, which is a paradox given that we live in an era of fast information. Imagine a world where sharing links amongst friends can become illegal. Freedom of press and citizens access to news is at jeopardy and we urge policymakers to get this reform right.”
Data, collected by NERA Consulting and reported in the 2015 and 2017 Reports, shows that restraining news aggregators’ activities breaks down advertising revenues and raises serious barriers to entry as well as expansion within existing markets.
The Coalition also opposes the introduction of content filtering obligations under Article 13. If adopted it will install a internet censorship mechanism, as the likes of “Big Brother”.
The Coalition of European Innovative Media Publishers announces a new rounds of meetings in September so as to participate to the debate as actively as possible.
Signed by: Innovative Media Publishers