Op 15 maart ga ik – en ik hoop met mij miljoenen andere Nederlanders – naar het stembureau voor de Tweede Kamerverkiezingen. Als toezichthouder op de media kijk ik natuurlijk met speciale belangstelling naar wat de verschillende politieke partijen in hun verkiezingsprogramma zeggen over de onafhankelijkheid, pluriformiteit en toegankelijkheid van het media-aanbod.

Dat zouden alle kiezers trouwens moeten doen. Media zijn immers de pijlers onder onze democratische rechtstaat. Zij bieden ons informatie en helpen bij onze meningsvorming. Daarmee dragen ze in sterke mate bij aan de kwaliteit van onze democratie. Wat de verschillende partijen in hun verkiezingsprogramma over media zeggen, leest u in dit overzicht.

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Coming from the Molengraaff Institute of Private law (REBO), I feel very much connected to RENFORCE and its work. From my early days as a PHD student, my focus has been on how regulation and supervision can deal with disruptive technology in a future proof way. How to support innovation on the one hand and to protect vulnerable consumer interests on the other, has been the leading theme in my work both in academia and for society. Since this is one of the key themes of RENFORCE, I always feel very much at home, but the last six month have been extremely exciting existing in this respect.

With and trough RENFORCE we have initiated many very valuable projects.  One of these initiatives is the project on the EU regulation of the protection of minors on all platforms and media against harmful, violent content. What is the optimal regulatory mix to guarantee protection of our beloved children on the one hand, whilst avoiding stifling innovation of the promising converging media on the other? A RENFORCE Conference on the topic as well as a peer reviewed publication formed the basis of my input in the recent update of the Directive on audio-visual media services, input I could give both as a RENFORCE law professor and as an ERGA chair[1]. I was extremely grateful to learn that the academic effort was fully acknowledge by the European Commission in its text for a New Directive for Audio-visual media services. A perfect valorisation of RENFORCEs academic efforts.

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