Speech by , President of the European Federation of Journalists at the Council of Europe in April 2016.

This summary of Mogen’s speech calls for media independence in Eastern European countries and argues the importance of public media in transitioning states.

The European Partnership countries in former Soviet states must realize that they in reality have to replace their state media by public service media independent from government

Independency of media in the so-called partnership countries from Caucasus to Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova was on the agenda 11th April 2016 at a conference set up by the Council of Europe, hosted by UK Parliament at Portcullis House. I was on the speakers list and should deliver a speech about public broadcast. I emphasized and repeated what a previous panelist has said, that it is important to explain that state media is media of the past, while public service media is of the present time. Parts of my speech follows here:

The total control of all state media is a rather common choice in the Eastern Partnership countries. This is also the heritage from the communist era, and all politicians are well aware, that 90 per cent of the population get their information through TV and state radio. Yes, we see a large number of private radio and TV, but most of them concentrate on entertainment while it is the state media taking care of news and information.

A way to deal with media development is to ensure media pluralism via media support. Unfortunately, all stakeholders like the government, the media themselves and the people often misinterpret how to deal with a state supported media landscape.

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