EMMA and ENPA, which together speak on behalf of European press publishers with over 50.000 magazine and newspaper titles (online and in print) as well as 20 corporate media groups, welcome yesterday’s provisional agreement on the much anticipated Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will be of crucial importance to restore fair competition on digital markets. In particular, the associations welcome the agreement to extend the obligation to apply fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory access conditions to their business users to the gatekeeper search engines and social networks.

Today, EMMA & ENPA reiterate the importance of the role of free media reporting on the large-scale conflict taking place in Ukraine.

Today, the European Parliament (EP) adopted its report on the EU’s Digital Services Act in plenary. Contrary to the opinions of the Committees on Culture and Education (CULT), Industry, Research and Education (ITRE) and the Legal Committee (JURI), the responsible committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) decided not to include in the Digital Services Act (DSA), a provision that would shed journalistic and editorial media from being unduly deleted from very large online platforms. The European Magazine Media Association (EMMA) and the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) recognise the fact that the general provision adopted today which binds the terms and conditions of online platforms to comply with fundamental rights,is better than nothing. We are grateful to all leaders and policy makers that have fought for the safeguard of digital press freedom.

Imagine a world where platforms can censor negative news about themselves, where they can make arbitrary adjustments to their terms and conditions to block or remove news stories and real debate between citizens online is curtailed. This is what could happen if platforms are not obliged to respect European fundamental rights in the Digital Services Act (DSA).