» In only 2 out of 20 countries analysed is it possible to know who really owns the media.

» In 10 out of 20 countries not even the media regulators know who really owns the print media and for online media this figure drops to 6.

Madrid, 4 March 2014 – Today Access Info Europe is opening for signature the Ten Recommendations on Transparency of Media Ownership.

We are seeking endorsements from all civil society organisations, media freedom and journalists groups who wish to see greater availability of information about who really owns the media.

The Ten Recommendations on Transparency of Media Ownership were drafted after extensive research into law and practice across Europe, conducted by Access Info Europe and the Open Society Program on Independent Journalism across Europe.

The Recommendations have already been subject to a public consultation in which over 100 media experts participated. They have been widely welcomed and discussed at events held by the European Commission in Brussels and have been presented to international organisations such as the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

The Goal of the Signature Campaign

Access Info Europe is now calling for organisations and media to endorse the 10 Recommendations in a first step to demand governments for stronger legislation on this issue. You can endorse this campaign by clicking here.

The Research

Access Info Europe and the Open Society Media Program conducted research and analysis in 20 countries (19 European countries plus Morocco), which revealed that the legal framework in most countries is insufficient to guarantee transparency of media ownership. Some of the key findings were:

» In only 9 of the 20 countries can the public find out who the actual owners of the broadcast media are from reporting to media regulators or to company registers.

» Disclosure to media regulators of beneficial (ultimate) owners of media outlets is not currently required in most of the countries.

» There is no unified or standard approach to collecting or requiring disclosure to the public of media ownership data, particularly with regard to print and online media.

Campaign Pack

All the documentation about this campaign – along with the campaign’s most FAQs and the research’s full data – can be found in the ‘TMO Advocacy Pack’, which you can download here and includes the following information:

  • A report on the whole of the investigations and its findings;
  • The Ten Transparency of Media Ownership Recommendations issuing from this research;
  • A series of interviews to journalists, academics and media and Freedom of Information experts, on media transparency;
  • Five individual in-depth country case studies on the different levels of media ownership transparency.

All the information, interviews, the country-by-country analysis, and any other news and updates, is available here: http://www.access-info.org/media-ownership-transparency

For more information, please contact:

Victoria Anderica | Access Info Europe
victoria@access-info.org +34 606592976