The Media Pluralism Monitor – 2016 results

The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) of the European University Institute has released the results of the 2016 independent implementation of the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), which measures risks to media pluralism in Europe.

Key findings:

• Media ownership is highly concentrated and this constitutes a significant risk to diversity of information and viewpoints represented in media content
• The lack of transparency of media ownership is a reality in many countries, which makes it difficult for the public to identify the potential biases in media content
• Editorial autonomy stands as one the most vulnerable aspects of media systems, susceptible to both commercial and political influences
• Many of the media authorities across Europe face strong political pressures, in particular when it comes to appointment procedures and composition of authorities
• The majority of countries show significant risks concerning media literacy by having no or underdeveloped media literacy policy, and by dedicating limited efforts to teaching media literacy in and outside schools
• Many of the minorities residing in the EU do not have adequate access to media, and community media is non-existent in several countries  
• None of the countries scored low risk on the representation of women as subjects and sources in news, which indicates that women might be heavily underrepresented in media across Europe

The MPM2016 report is available at monitor.cmpf.eui.eu along with a series of graphs, as well as the country reports.

The Media Pluralism Monitor is part of the actions of the Commission to support media freedom and pluralism in the EU, within its competences. These fundamental rights are enshrined in the Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The MPM implementation is run in full independence by the European University Institute. Its results do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission and are not binding for the Commission.