News Media Europe has joined seven other European media associations, including the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association and the European Magazine Media Association, in calling on EU decision-makers to strengthen the position of editorial media towards online platforms in the Digital Services Act.

The NME says that online platforms attract millions of users with editorial content that they do not produce, but which they have become experts at monetising, especially through advertising. Online platforms need press publishers as much as press publishers rely on online distributors. In the interest of European consumers and a free and plural media landscape online, the European news media industry is “eager to establish fairer and more transparent relations with online platforms”. According to the NME, this can be achieved by strengthening the DSA to:

• protect the editorial freedom of media organisations;
• ensure proper brand attribution of media content online;
• ensure clear, transparent and predictable terms and conditions from intermediation services;
• provide more transparency into platforms’ recommender systems;
• tackle the monopolisation of advertising revenues by global online platforms, ensuring the sustainability of the press; and
• providing for an effective notice-and-take-down mechanism to combat illegal content.

To read the NME’s press release in full, click here.