Empower Democracy
Blog Posts

2019-12-03 Tues, Google, and the associations they fund are everywhere, briefing against the proposed copyright reform: in the press, on social media, on their own global advertising platform telling everyone how they “deeply care for journalism” and for the creative sector. Google agrees with copyright – just not when it applies to them.

2018-11-12 We, EMMA (European Magazine Media Association), ENPA (European Newspaper Publishers' Association), EPC (European Publishers Council) and NME (News Media Europe) - representing the interests of tens of thousands of news brands, newspapers and magazines, across the EU, are writing to you ahead of the Committee of Permanent Representatives' discussion on 12 December 2018 on the Proposal for Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

2018-09-09 This week on 12^th September, as a Member of the European Parliament you will be asked to vote again on the copyright reform. Voting for the Rapporteur's amendments to the Publisher's neighbouring Right (article 11) on Wednesday is crucial. Why?

2018-08-31 MEPs have a huge responsibility on 12 September when they vote again in Plenary on the copyright proposal: whether they support those who finance our independent press or whether they are prepared to allow US tech giants to continue to capture the revenues of Europe's press.

2018-06-19 Will you vote to help publishers licence their content, finance innovation, invest in professional journalism and support Europe's free, independent press? Or will you be on record as happy to endorse the continued unlicensed use of valuable news content by companies who thrive on monetising the intellectual property of others?

2018-06-12 - It's time to take a stand for democracy: If you believe in the value of a free and independent press to democracy, and if you believe that citizens should continue to have access to a large variety of content; if you believe voters should also in the future be able to rely on information from professional news outlets, which take responsibility for the content they publish; if you believe that creation of content in Europe has a value that should be remunerated, you will surely applaud the creation of a Publisher's Neighbouring Right.

2018-04-27 - Size is not the issue! Whether they are small, medium or large press publishing houses, their viability is threatened by the inability to exert adequate legal pressure on internet giants and aggregators who routinely commercialise content without permission or remuneration. The EU proposal for a Publisher's Right would help publishers of all sizes encourage those who wish to re-use their content commercially to negotiate licences.

2018-01-16 - Over the past decades, press publishers have made the leap into the digital age. As forerunners of online journalism and media, newspaper and magazine publishers been a driving force of digital innovation in the European Union. Through investments, cooperation and initiatives, such as start-up accelerators, press publishers have not only developed their own digital business models, but have also contributed to the development of strong, creative and diverse digital enterprises, including many start-ups, in media and in other sectors.

2017-12-13 - Europe’s press publishing sector is totally united in its call for a crucial Publisher’s Right in the context of the current EU copyright reform. Supporters of the Empower Democracy campaign alone represent tens of thousands of publishers both in print and online, through national association members spanning more than 25 European countries.

2017-12-06 - It is difficult to imagine that anyone would want to deny publishers the right to say "yes or no" to the commercial re-use of their content or deny them the freedom to negotiate contracts and the possibility to enforce when the right has been abused. Yet there appear to be anti-copyright campaigners and vested interests a-plenty campaigning for precisely that.We should ask ourselves why. The neighbouring "Publisher's" right, as proposed by the European Commission in the draft copyright reform, would simply clarify the legal standing of press publishers in a harmonised way across Europe and avoid a patchwork of national solutions. It is not a links tax, it is not the same as either the German or Spanish law (there is no ancillary right in Spain); although it is worth noting that the German and Spanish laws are starting to bring companies to the table to negotiate with publishers.

2017-09-15 - This autumn will mark an important milestone for publishing and a free and independent press in Europe. Leading on the EU draft copyright reform, the European Parliament’s JURI committee is expected to vote in November.

2017-07-10 - The debate surrounding EU copyright reform is becoming extremely heated. Sadly, we were accused this week of peddling ’’lies’’ about the proposed neighbouring/ancillary copyright for press publishers.

2017-06-19 - Blatant attempts to derail the proposal for a Press Publisher’s Right within the EU copyright reform are being made by the anti-copyright campaigning groups, DigitalEurope, AlliedforStartups, EDRi and Canadian group OpenMedia following support for ’’article 11’’ by the IMCO committee.

2017-06-08 - Today, Thursday, 8 June, MEPs voting in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), took the golden opportunity to do the right thing and voted for a copyright proposal that acknowledges the role that press publishers play in our precious democracy by investing in a free and independent professional press.

2017-06-07 - In the past week or so we are sure you will have become aware of a highly orchestrated, cynical, self-serving campaign to undermine or destroy the European Commission's proposal to make Europe's press publishers beneficiaries of two of the rights already harmonised at European level, via a new neighbouring right. It is not hard to see where apparently multiple calls for a watering down and even the deletion of the publisher’s right from the EU Copyright reform directive originate from when we remember that the vested interests of US tech giants, start-up alliances and anti-copyright campaigners have made it clear they do not want the status quo to change. Of course they don’t.

2017-03-24 - The free press is essential to democracy but individual publishers are businesses and a business that cannot monetise its valuable content is a business without a future. The current digital ecosystem is dysfunctional: publishers produce the content, distribute the content and the revenue-earning potential is siphoned off by third parties that copy and re-use publishers’ content without permission or licence: content goes out, revenue gets diverted, publishers can’t re-invest in new content as much as they would like.

2017-02-21 - At the touch of a button, today’s consumer can access press content from anywhere in the world: any place, any time, on any topic on any platform and any device. They can interact and comment on what they read and share it with their friends and family. They can engage with the journalists and other commentators and take part in online debates and conversations.

2017-02-07 - This is the second in our series of blog posts from the initiative “Empower Democracy” on the realities of today’s newspaper and magazine publishing industry. In this letter, we focus on the issue of Fake News. We hope you will find it of interest.

2017-01-17 - We, the undersigned associations, representing tens of thousands of news and magazine publishers, have initiated a campaign entitled “Empower Democracy”. We are committed to defending a diverse, free and independent press sector for a democratic Europe.