Young and New Media Conference: Commission has closed itself from journalists

The EuropocketTV organised conference in Pablo de Vallbona (Valencia) opened this morning with a critical debate about the communication of the European Commission. The core message shared by all debaters is that the European Commission is closing itself from journalists. Ten years ago journalists were able to walk around and talk with everyone. Right now, there are even voices in the European Commission that want to cancel the daily press conference. It is more difficult for journalists to get interviews.

Part of it can be explained by the fact that the EU has the biggest press core in the world. But more important is that the EU is not addressing the journalists. The EU is addressing the public directly, and on a non-critical way. Sergio Cantone (Euronews): “The communication strategy of the European commission totally failed. They do not make a distiction between journalists and people. It is all propaganda, and they all are thinking like bureaucrats. The commission is a strange beast. They think they are the elite of the European bureaucracy. You have to treat it as a bureaucratic body, not as a goverment.”

Raymond Franken (EUX.TV): “In Brussels, a lot of times it is the journalists that are blamed for not getting the message out. But in fact, it is the structure of the EU itself that is to blame since no one is accountable. The Parliament can only send away the full Commission, for example.”
Cantone: “The governments are responsable for that situation. Good control must be from the parliament in the first place. National governments are trying to hide what is happening in Brussels.”

But journalists have a responsability too. A lot of journalists are using the press conferences as a one way communication that they can see from their desks. Patricia Kelly (CNN, BBC): “If we do not ask questions at press conferences, they will disappear. Now there are daily briefings, but a lot of people in the commission do not see it as something important. It is very important that journalists show up in the press conferences in Brussels, not just follow it online. It is almost disappearing now.”

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