JEF presents the alternatives you face in the election. Today we present the views of all Political Party Youth Organisations (PPYO’s) and JEF-Europe about media freedom. Yesterday we published their views on civil rights.
EFAy – European Free Alliance Youth: Freedom of the press is a highly valued right in modern society. For EFAy, this includes the freedom of broadcasting and press in national or minority languages. EFAy calls for cooperation between EU Members States to ensure that people speaking the same language are able to receive the same broadcasts. EFAy also calls for the relaxation of European laws on broadcasting on the internet.
Federation of Young European Greens – FYEG: FYEG considers both transparency and accountability as vital for the functioning of democracy. Without these governments tend towards corruption and nepotism and citizens lose sufficient means of control of their governments. We see communication and therefore media as a fundamental social process and a pillar of democracy. As a result, media freedom can be used as an important indicator for democracy. Everyone must have equal access to the media and the tools for its exchange. With the recent technical development the creation, collection and sharing of information is as easy as never before. The Internet can lead towards more transparency and new forms of media emerge like open data or citizen journalism. We recognize the importance of this development and want to preserve it’s empowering and emancipating character.
International Federation of Liberal Youth – IFLRY: Freedoms of opinion and of expression are core values for any Liberal. They are at the very origins of Liberal thought. Though in most of Europe the situation is satisfactory, there are still cases of either some kind of censorship power by public authorities (mostly indirect); in other cases, the links between private media and political actors are far too close. Furthermore, while internet and social media continue to affirm themselves as new spaces of freedom, both for political participation and information, there are pressing issues related to the respect of privacy, cyber-security or open access to the internet. For these reasons, LYMEC supports net neutrality, strongly opposes filters and content-blocking, and pleads for a European cyber-security strategy.
European Liberal Youth – LYMEC: Freedoms of opinion and of expression are core values for any Liberal. They are at the very origins of Liberal thought. Though in most of Europe the situation is satisfactory, there are still cases of either some kind of censorship power by public authorities (mostly indirect); in other cases, the links between private media and political actors are far too close. Furthermore, while internet and social media continue to affirm themselves as new spaces of freedom, both for political participation and information, there are pressing issues related to the respect of privacy, cyber-security or open access to the internet. For these reasons, LYMEC supports net neutrality, strongly opposes filters and content-blocking, and pleads for a European cyber-security strategy.
Young European Socialists – YES: Democracy needs free and active media to work. This is an absolute necessity in the 21th century, when politics and society is getting ever more complex and causalities are more and more difficult to see. We need freedom of media regardless of what form it takes. The EU should also be in the forefront of defending the media freedom elsewhere in the world, supporting and protecting journalists and others facing consequences for their work.
Youth of European People’s Party – YEPP: Freedom and availability of information should be respected, as it forms the bridge between citizens and the state. At the same time, media should be discouraged from creating and promoting hate between citizens.
Young Europeans Federalists – JEF Europe: We should speak up for a tolerant Europe in which everyone has the liberty to express their views in a mutual respect for everyone’s opinions. There is an alarming trend in Europe of dubious media laws and concentration of media ownership. We must contribute to the fight for media freedom in Europe, countering the rise of nationalist and populist movements as a threat to a tolerant Europe.
