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The Commission aims to support projects that address structural challenges of the media sectors and/or that promote a free, diverse and pluralistic media environment. Examples include supporting collaborative and cross-border journalism, monitoring risks to media pluralism, mapping violations of media freedom, defending journalists under threat, media innovation, supporting media literacy and strengthening the European public sphere.
In short, the European Union supports the news media sector primarily through:
- The ‘Multimedia Actions’ line to fund independent news media coverage of EU affairs.
- Pilot projects and preparatory actions proposed from one year to another by the European Parliament, on a variety of topics.
- And more recently, actions under its Creative Europe programme to support media pluralism and freedom, media collaborations and media literacy.
While additional investment and financing opportunities are being developed, demand exceeds the available budgets (€41 million in 2021).
Downloads
EN: EU support to news media: a state-of-play (.pdf)
PT: Apoio da UE ao setor dos meios da comunicação social: ponto de situação (.pdf)