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Media freedom is under attack all across the EU. The European Commission should take the democratic role of the media seriously and should use its powers to defend press freedom.

We cannot pretend anymore that there are no problems with press freedom in Europe. The media is under attack all across the European Union: journalists are harassed or killed, independent newspapers are shut down, and journalists are sued just for doing their job. Media pluralism is under attack by media empires, and information has become a commodity that can be bought and sold.

But without media freedom, democracy cannot truly exist. That is why we are calling on the European Commission to take media freedom seriously, and to use its legal and political powers to protect freedom of the press, freedom of expression and freedom of information. They have the power to do it, all they need is political will. Sign this petition and help us.

There are already some promising developments: for example, the EU just adopted a new, comprehensive whistle-blower protection directive to protect people who speak out and tell the truth. Plus the EU has started to fund cross-border investigative journalism projects and the money is allocated via independent organisations to avoid any political interference.

But a lot more can, and should be done. The European Commission has strong market regulation powers, and we want them to use these powers to protect media pluralism. For example, the European Commission could ban governments from funding media outlets that are politically controlled (by declaring it illegal state aid), and they could act to defend media freedom by breaking up media monopolies so that people have access to diverse sources of information. They could also provide more money to investigative journalism, so that corruption and abuse of power is exposed to the people. Read more about our demands for media freedom here.

Sign this petition and share it with your friends so that the European Commission acts in favour of media freedom, independence and pluralism. Help us put pressure on the Commission so it defends democracy and the right to information for us all.