Whatever it takes: How a European media platform could protect democracy

Matthias Pfeffer is Director of the Council for European Public Space.

Despite major regulatory efforts, the EU Commission has not yet succeeded in preventing foreign interference, propaganda and manipulation of public opinion in Europe. Citizens are currently seeing news that is not news, fakes of unclear origin, increasingly deceptive news – generated by AI and spread by bots and trolls funded by autocrats.

So, what to do, Europe? Fighting fake news with fact checking is not enough. We need to strengthen fact telling just as much. In other words: professional journalism, which is fighting to survive in the current structural digital change of the public sphere and which we urgently need as the fourth estate. This is about strengthening professional journalism so that citizens can access reliable information. And speed is of the essence.

Create decentralized infrastructure

We can act through the smart use of technologies that are already available today. News and political information from Europe’s media could be made available on a common platform, publicly managed and held accountable, available to all Europeans in their own national language. Citizens need reliable information to make free and self-determined decisions. And the free press in Europe will only survive with its own digital infrastructure. In times of hybrid warfare, democracy must finally be able to defend itself in the information sector.

This is why the Council for European Public Space has developed the concept of a decentralized platform for trustworthy news. It’s based on the experience of numerous pilot projects in recent years and studies commissioned by the European Parliament’s research department, the STOA.

These experiences show: It’s technically and legally possible to make all European TV news available to all Europeans in their own language. This would finally fulfill an important fundamental right: according to Article 11 of the European Charter of Human Rights, all citizens already have the right to unhindered free news regardless of frontiers. With the help of this new digital service, they could compile their own news from the wide range of European media, change perspectives and compare sources.

Not that much money

This Euro platform would not create a centralized Brussels perspective on the world. It merely combines what is already available everywhere in Europe and, by making it accessible to all citizens in all languages, would increase the range of professional news and thus the diversity of opinion in every member state. It would be plural, decentralized and subsidiary in terms of technology and content, and thus reflect the spirit of Europe.

In a first step, TV news from public broadcasters should be made accessible. Europe’s license fee payers finance public service media to the tune of over 27 billion euros per year, of which the Germans contribute over a third. Why should news which are already paid for not be available to all citizens throughout Europe? All that is needed to make this offer available to all Europeans is an investment of an estimated 40 million euros per year.

Europe has to make this sum available: This infrastructure would represent a practical public service for democracy, enabling all citizens to reliably inform and orient themselves on a daily basis. After that, the platform should be opened to private TV providers and media houses, as well as non-profit independent media and cultural institutions. This new offering should be made visible by introducing a findability obligation for reliable news on TikTok, X, Instagram and Co.

Connect public spheres

The simultaneous overcoming of language barriers, made possible for the first time by technology, is a huge opportunity for better mutual understanding and for Europe to grow closer together. Umberto Eco already called translation the language of Europe. Today, translation technology must be the continent’s technology of the future. For the first time in history, it could also enable national public spheres to open themselves to each other.

Europe’s strength, its unity while at the same time preserving its diversity, would become visible. A common democratic resonance chamber would emerge in Europe. This is a prerequisite for political action, which can only be democratically legitimized through public deliberation processes. Let’s strengthen the European public sphere now, through concrete measures, before it is too late!