DIACOMET workshop – EMFA, DSA, DMA: what do the acronyms mean?

The Hungarian Europe Society organised a workshop under the auspices of DIACOMET titled “New EU Ideas and Legislation to Strengthen Media Freedom”.

“New EU Ideas and Legislation to Strengthen Media Freedom” was the title of the workshop organised by the Hungarian Europe Society under the auspices of DIACOMET project at its seat in Budapest on 28th of November 2023.

First, Erik Uszkiewicz made a short presentation about the concept and objectives of DIACOMET launched by ten academic partners and NGO-s, including HES. The first of the two invited speakers, Gábor Polyák, Professor and Head of the Department of Media and Communication at the Faculty of Humanities of ELTE University and director of Mertek Media Monitor elaborated his views under the title “Waiting for a Miracle – the EU and the Freedom of the Press” about the potential impacts of the proposed EMFA, a new EU regulation on the state of the Hungarian media system.

Then, Éva Simon, lawyer, senior advocacy officer at the Civil Liberties Union for Europe made an address entitled “Digitalisation and globalisation – EU regulatory experiments” analysing the DSA/DMA and EMFA legislative pieces from a broader perspective.

In the following discussion, more than 20 in-person and online participants explored issues such as media pluralism in liberal democracies and illiberal regimes, media ownership concentration, the role of media authorities, social media and technology platforms, disinformation and censorship, the different regulatory efforts of the United States and China, the conflicting relationship between data protection and transparency.