A review of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) has been voted on by members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) earlier today with Curzio Maltese – GUE/NGL coordinator on the committee and shadow rapporteur of the file – expressing serious concerns over its impact on minors and information pluralism:

“The result of this morning’s vote severely hinders information pluralism and will negatively impact upon authors, citizens but especially the most vulnerable groups in society such as minors,” says the Italian MEP.

“This texts favours the economic dominance of the sharing platforms which are not bound by any publishing responsibilities. Similarly, they don’t have to adhere to advertising restrictions and can therefore compete unfairly by showing fraudulent advertisements such as product placement – something which is now fully regulated.”

“Unfortunately, the rock solid alliance between the two rapporteurs – S&D’s Petra Kammerevert and EPP’s Sabine Verheyen, both members of Stuttgart's television board – did not allow for an adequate debate during the negotiations. This is why we will ask the Parliament – in plenary – to decide on their mandate for the trilogue.”

“The video sharing platform market already suffers from a considerable concentration of power without proper regulations. This poses problems for the audiovisual industry and helps promote unfair competition to the detriment of quality programming. There is a need for a more balanced reform: one that is in the public interest but without the indoctrination. Our efforts will not end with the vote today and that is why we will be asking the European Commission to review the 17-year old e-commerce directive,” says Maltese.