Newspaper publishers highlight priorities for improvement of media literacy in the EU

     - The high-level nature and wording of the Council conclusions means that they are lacking valuable detail. Member States must be aware of the importance of including a wide range of content genres in their national media literacy programmes; not least the news genre deserves inclusion, so that people are able to gain the skills required to navigate their way through the multifaceted identity of the news landscape. In particular, publishers place an importance on the critical understanding of news content.

     - The Member States should also seriously consider that media literacy in Europe goes far beyond the mere development of “digital competence”. Newspapers call on the Member States not to fall into the trap of simply stating that media literacy equates to the ability of a consumer to buy a product safely from a website across borders. Publishers consider that media literacy is rather about the shaping of European citizens, the ability for the public to understand what the media’s role is in healthy democratic society as well as providing the public with a real insight into the process of content companies’ production and investment in content to heighten public awareness about the high value of content production.

     - As added value, media literacy actions can also raise awareness about cultural creation and dissemination often promoting local cultural traditions and history. The press is very active here, in its role to bring culture to its readers through its reporting, by informing on new exhibitions, cultural history, cultural entertainment such as cinema and theatre, books and community cultural activities such as local festivals. In this way, media literacy can substantially contribute to participation in society and social cohesion in Europe.

     - The Member States should promote strong copyright protection on newspapers’ content in their online and digital versions. In this field, they should encourage copyright awareness-raising programmes and the type of content offered by different content providers in the context of national media literacy programmes. Publishers find their content threatened on a daily basis by other businesses which use publishers’ content without first seeking permission, let alone offering remuneration.

******

ENPA, based in Brussels, is an international non-profit association, advocating the interests of the European newspaper publishing industry at different European and international organisations and institutions. ENPA represents over 5,200 national, regional and local newspaper titles, published in 25 European countries. More than 150 million newspapers are sold and read by over 300 million Europeans every day, in addition to the tens of millions of unique daily visits to online newspapers websites. Publishing industries as a whole constitute an important economic sector in the EU, employing more than 750,000 people in 64,000 companies.