Groundbreaking new EU laws to safeguard the independence of newsrooms received the final seal of approval by the European Parliament on Wednesday.
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00:00 The European Parliament has approved the first ever EU legislation on safeguarding press freedoms, called the Media Freedom Act.
00:10 The law aims to protect newsrooms from political pressure and oligarchs, and stop spyware being used against journalists.
00:17 Due to the bill, media outlets will have to publish details about their ownership, while the EU will also investigate how state advertisement spending is shared.
00:26 This is the top business policy of the EU.
00:30 With this legislation, we want citizens to have direct access to who is reporting,
00:36 who is the owner of this media outlet, which we know is a very hidden issue.
00:44 On the other hand, we want to focus on publishing independence,
00:49 because this legislation also aims to protect journalists, press freedom and publishing independence.
01:00 The Media Freedom Act was put forward by European Commission Vice President Vera Jarova,
01:06 mostly because of disinformation permeating Hungary and Poland's media landscapes in recent years.
01:13 In both countries, Brussels has criticized government influence over national broadcasters,
01:19 but Hungarian pro-government MEPs claim the law threatens media freedom.
01:24 The EU's aim is to make it so that only Brussels can speak up in the public eye of its member states,
01:30 to suppress national and Christian conservative opinions and values.
01:34 The Commission has rejected these claims, saying the law will not limit freedom of speech.
01:40 The law also aims to prevent big online platforms from deleting or restricting independent media content.
01:48 media content.
01:49 (whooshing)