Across the world, public media is at the crossroads. According to the State Media Monitor, a project that covers 157 countries, “84 percent of 595 state and public media outlets worldwide now lack editorial independence”. The perils and pitfalls of this situation have been featured in a new op-ed authored by Marius Dragomir, the Director of Media and Journalism Research Center, which has been published by a spate of media outlets across Europe.
Dragomir discusses the erosion of public service media and the decline of its editorial independence due to attacks from both political parties and market players, and highlights the uniqueness of this broadcasting model as one that could help democracy survive and thrive.
The op-ed has been featured in EU Observer, Romanian Evenimentul Zilei, Rzeczpospolita in Poland, Slovenian Delo, Poslovni Dnevnik in Croatia, Czech business daily Hospodarske Noviny, Dnevnik in Bulgaria, Portuguese Publico, Huffington Post Italia, SME, a leading daily in Slovakia, Dagens ETC in Sweden, the Croatian newspaper Vecernji list and Hungary’s Nepszava.
It will also be published later this month in the political independent Danish newspaper, Altinget.