Civic Europe commits to safeguarding journalism

Report from #ConnectingEU2025

“Voices from the terrible past are rising around Europe,” were almost the first words uttered at the European Economic and Social Committee’s (EESC) ‘Connecting EU’ Seminar. Several further speakers repeated that precise phrase during the course of the two-day meeting.

Aurel Laurențiu Plosceanu, the EESC vice president, who opened the two-day event with that observation continued: “we cannot stand by and let their volume increase the chances of a world without democracy. Restricting media freedom inevitably leads to undermining civil society freedoms.”

‘Helping journalism survive and thrive’ was the conference’s theme” – but stark examples of the challenges reporters face formed much of the programme. Hanna Liubakova, for example, a Belarusian reporter, described being sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison for journalism that: “infected people with the wrong emotions”.

Belarus – journalists imprisoned

Andrey Gnyot spoke via video link while under house arrest in Serbia awaiting possible extradition to face: “torture, and death, simply for telling the truth”. Representatives of memorial projects to Daphne Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak described the murder of those journalists in Malta and Slovakia as a means to cover up political corruption.

Belgium – publication banned

A case shared by Ricardo Gutiérrez, general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, revealed how universal are the challenges. Last week, his old employer, the liberal Belgian daily Le Soir, was in court to defend plans to expose a politician charged with financial impropriety. Despite Belgium’s constitution guaranteeing free speech, the judge forbade the newspaper from publishing a court document relating to a judicial investigation for tax fraud, on pain of a €50,000 fine. This not an isolated instance of such judicial abuse in the lowland kingdom.

The EESC is an advisory body to the European Union, comprising representatives of employers’ groups, trades unions and civil society organisations. It has 329 members drawn from these groups – many of whom were at the seminar. The Committee has a right to be consulted on much of the EU’s work, and organises this annual event focussing on pressing concerns.

AI – will news platforms be visible?

New issues for journalism were also on the agenda. Alexandra Borchardt summarised the findings of her excellent study for the European Broadcasting Union ‘Trusted Journalism In The Age Of Generative AI’. “How will audiences find media platforms in the future when you can just request the news from ChatGPT,” she asked? “(Even if they are found) traditional media could be swept up in general mistrust. We risk destroying all trust”.

For Jean-Paul Marthoz, columnist and former editor of Le Soir, the panoply of perennial threats to publishing are journalism’s most significant challenges – slaps, harassment, overbearing governments and physical threats by criminals. He promotes a purist approach to his trade. “We must separate emotions from facts, and be more assertive about the values and norms of journalism. (Emotional) tricks are a form of disrespect for the audience”.

Several younger contributors took issue with him, arguing that if news platforms are to engage with ‘gen z’ audiences, a very different approach is required.

Under the influencers

Gretel Kahn, for example, a journalist with the Reuters Institute said: “News influencers’ can teach us how to reach young audiences. Traditional journalists have to speak to audiences in the language they use. Young audiences want conversation and connection.” She noted that many potential entrants to journalism now bypass legacy media and set themselves up on TikTok.

One vision of what their news content might look like came from Rike Smit, from the German initiative Use The News. It enables young people to create experimental news, largely on TikTok. “We use a story like the rising price of kebabs – a big issue for young Germans – to talk about inflation. Personalities work better than brands – young people rate authenticity”.

Croatia – fashionista storms the polls

Nina Skočak provided the most striking example of this. The 26-year-old Croatian influencer has over 300,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram. In a striking pivot from sharing lifestyle and fashion videos, she contested this year’s EU elections. With a ticket of gen z candidates supporting her, Skočak received four per cent of the national vote. Among 18 to 29 year olds, however, she took nearly a quarter of the vote, just two per cent short of the governing Christian Democratic Party (HDZ).

“I want to communicate politics so that young people don’t even realise that its politics”, she said. “You can do that if you package issues though personality and fashion”.

Among her campaign commitments was a demand for statutory leave for those experiencing menstrual pain. She promoted this with a ‘Vox pop’ TikTok video featuring men in the street wired to a ‘period pain simulator’. It deployed her character and humour in the service of a serious point, on a production budget of €40. Her whole campaign cost only €3,000.

Skočak promotes liberal policies, gives a strong impression of personal integrity, and says that she has lost paying clients as a result of entering politics.

The challenge of disinformation

But what happens when the ‘terrible voices of the past’ harness such engaging and compelling storytelling techniques? That shadow hung over the event, without being given full voice. 

The seminar itself, however, left no doubt that the EESC has the right issue in its sights. President, Oliver Röpke said: “Journalism is a pillar of democracy, we need stronger mechanisms to safeguard journalists. The battle against disinformation is a growing challenge”.

Hopefully, broadcasting these concerns to the wide constituency that Connecting EU reaches, is a significant step to quieting those resurgent horrors.

A gallery of images of the event.