The issue of media ownership in Europe has been a heated topic of discussion since the 1990s, characterized by controversial elements such as corporate takeovers, government interference in coverage, inadequate funding, and attacks on journalists—each posing challenges to media independence and freedom. Despite some efforts by the European Union to address this issue, the results have been lukewarm.
Follow the Money, an independent Dutch investigative journalism platform, analyzed the EU’s attempts to tackle this problem, including an interview with Marius Dragomir, the director of MJRC, who asserted that the EU’s revised Media Freedom Act is unlikely to reverse the trend of media capture: media outlets being taken over by government-affiliated businessmen in Hungary.
The article is available here.