Sustainable funding, trust built through quality media and media literacy are key to promote quality journalism, recommendation says

The Council of Europe has adopted on 17 March 2022 Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on promoting a favourable environment for quality journalism in the digital age. The recommendation calls for all of the Council's 46 member States to create a better environment for quality journalism. It contains a set of legal, administrative and practical guidelines aimed at ensuring sustainable funding for quality media to promote quality journalism, building and maintaining trust in journalism through the dissemination of quality content and promoting media literacy.

The draft recommendation had been approved during the 4th meeting of the Committee of experts on quality journalism in the digital age (MSI-JOQ), held on 26 September 2019, but could not be adopted by the Committee of Ministers due to the Russian Federation's veto. Following the cessation of the Russian Federation's membership to the Council of Europe, decided by the Committee of Ministers on 16 March 2022, the recommendation was adopted the next day.

The MSI-JOQ Committee has also produced a report, authored by media literacy experts Martina Chapman and Markus Oermann, entitled "Supporting Quality Journalism through Media and Information Literacy", which was the subject of a previous article by the EPRA Secretariat.

Source: Council of Europe

• Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on promting a favourable environment for quality journalism in the digital age (EN/FR)

• MSI-JOQ Committee of experts on quality journalism in the digital age (EN/FR)

• Supporting Quality Journalism through Media and Information Literacy (EN)

Image credit: Council of Europe