“Some people endlessly try to protect media freedom, others attack it endlessly.”

On Friday, 12 November 2021, MEP Irena Joveva participated in the Young Changemakers Academy 2021 event organised by the European Liberal Forum (ELF) and the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC). She opened a roundtable discussion where young people exchanged views with Renew Europe MEPs and spoke about the European Union’s current challenges and the Conference on the Future of Europe.

In her opening address, MEP Joveva explained why she decided to become involved in politics as a young person. She pointed out that many things in politics perturbed her. In particular, the fact that the voices of young people were not heard or that politicians were talking about young people, but not with them. “In this term of office there are many more younger MEPs than ever before and together we are trying to drive change and bring new, fresh ideas to the political world. To show that we are not all the same in politics.”

Joveva highlighted an important topic that she, as a member of the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT), is following with particular interest – social media regulation and media protection in general. As a former journalist, she is very concerned about the media situation in Europe. “We are facing increasingly aggressive attempts by governments to silence free media in Poland, Hungary and unfortunately also in my home country, Slovenia, which is already under scrutiny by the European institutions because of the political pressure on the media and journalists,” she said, noting that discussions on both sides seem to be endless. “Some people endlessly try to protect media freedom, while others attack it endlessly. I honestly think the pressure on the press today is unprecedented.” The good news is that new European legislation, the European Media Freedom Act, is being drafted. The new legislation will address a number of aspects of media freedom – from the challenges of digitisation and changes in access to information to the separation of public and private media and media market regulation. As such, the European Media Freedom Act is crucial to our democracies, according to Joveva.

The MEP concluded her address by calling on young people to become actively involved in the discussions on the future of Europe, both with members of national parliaments and MEPs, as young people have a wealth of good ideas, opinions and proposals.

The Young Changemakers Academy is a programme aimed at preparing young people to participate actively in their respective communities by shaping their future in given policy areas through advocacy projects by means of three seminars and networking support with other like-minded young people and senior political figures from around the world.