Less than 3 months to go before the elections for the European Parliament and in the Dutch newspapers I read close to nothing about the topic. The only Dutch newspaper that makes an effort of reporting on Europe is the NRC with a special online Europe page, but even on that page I couldn’t discover a special section on the elections. Is it too soon to cover the topic or is it a conscious editorial decision to only write about what the general public interests? Clearly the majority of Dutch citizens doesn’t vote for the EP:
|
Year |
Turnout (%) |
|---|---|
|
1979 |
58,1 |
|
1984 |
50,1 |
|
1989 |
47,5 |
|
1994 |
35,7 |
|
1999 |
29,9 |
|
2004 |
39,1 |
These numbers are shocking if you realize that even according to the Dutch government more than half of all legislation is a result of European policy.
To get informed about the EU and the EP elections I have to make a real effort finding the right sources. Getting a subscription to a renowned newspaper is not enough to get a clear picture. I think that as long as the traditional newspapers (which still have the biggest number of readers) don’t pay more attention to the elections, the number of people making the effort to vote on June 4th will decline again.
It makes me wonder about the coverage in other EU countries? Are the newspapers in your country covering news around the EU on a regular basis? Are the elections already on their radar? And what was the turnout in your country in 2004? Let me know!
(7 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)
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I think it is a common feature in a lot of traditional newspapers. Newspapers seem only to report EU summits, treaty reform issues and financial scandals but fail to monitor the day to day business within EU institutions. Another worrying aspect is the ignorance of chief editors in the media sector when it comes to the EU:
http://www.kosmopolito.org/2009/03/04/de-staandard-compares-eu-with-latvian-poems/
Those reactions you described in your article are so typical, Andreas. And so sad if you really think about it.
I wonder if it’s the common reaction of the cynical well-to-do Western European. Or would Eastern European people respond in the same way?
Exactly - it’s typical. Also in Latvian (and I believe that the most of EU states) you can rarely hear anything about things being decided in Brussels unless it’s a special section paid by EC or EP.
Maybe the bigger info campaign will start when all the candidates will be known? At least in Latvia we don’t know yet who will be candidating for the MEPs.
Here in the Netherlands the candidates haven’t been announced either. Let’s see if there will be more coverage in the newspapers when we know who the candidates will be.