In the course of its plenary session in Strasbourg from 18 to 20 November, the European Parliament approved a Resolution on the “concentration of the means of information” (cf. interview on p. 4). Following the debate in the chamber on the opening day of the session, the need emerged to ask the Commission to draft a new Green Paper on the independence and pluralism of the media and to verify the existence of a juridical basis for proposing by the end of the legislature an EU directive on the harmonization of legislations on the ownership of the means of information. The two previous Green Papers, “Pluralism and concentration of the means of mass communication on the internal market Evaluation of the need for Community action” and “Convergence between the sectors of telecommunications, audiovisuals and information technologies and its legislative implications”, date in fact respectively to 1994 and 1997. Starting out from the presupposition that the EU and member states ought to “safeguard the pluralism of the means of information and guarantee that they be free and diversified in all member states”, the Resolution approved by the European Parliament urges the European Commission “to begin a wide-ranging process of consultation with a view to evaluating the development of new technologies and new communications, and the particular the impact of mergers, alliances and joint ventures on the internal market and on the pluralism of the means of information, as well as on the right to freedom of expression and of the access of all citizens to the services of the information society”.
