The European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA) is the main advocate of the interests of European newspaper publishing industry towards the European institutions. We represent over 5,200 national, regional and local newspaper titles, published in 23 EU Member States as well as in Norway and Switzerland and read by over 300 million Europeans a day. HEADLINES MEDIA LITERACY 1 European Commission speaks out COPYRIGHT 2 Commission’s hearing on Google Books Infopaq case COMPETITION POLICY 2/3 FIEG complains to Italian anti-trust authority against Google Public service broadcasting INFORMATION SOCIETY 3 Post I-2010 strategy CONSUMER RIGHTS 3 Publishers express concerns on draft consumer rights’ directive PRESS FREEDOM 4 ENPA and WAN protest against Lithuanian law on the protection of minors SEPTEMBER 2009 European Commission speaks out on media literacy policies across Europe On 20 August, the European Commisson adopted its Recommendation on media literacy in the digital environment for a more competitive audiovisual and content industry and an inclusive knowledge society. ENPA welcomed the European Commission’s acknowledgement of the position of publishers as significant contributors to media literacy in the European Commission Recommendation. Mr Valdo Lehari Jr. ENPA President said: “Newspaper publishers hold a joint responsibility with politicians for ensuring freedom of expression in a healthy democracy”. ENPA highlighted three main points in relation to the Recommendation with a view to contributing to future work on EU policy on media literacy: 1) A close involvement of publishers in advising on new media literacy national initiatives planned by national authorities is essential. 2) Citizens’ increased media literacy is essential for democracy and copyright awareness also needs to be better understood by the public. 3) ENPA is ready to cooperate on future research on media literacy. The Commission Recommendation calls on Member States to “ensure a close involvement of traditional publishers” in initiatives on digital media literacy (recital 24). This recognition by the EU of publishers’ positive contribution for many years now to increasing media literacy amongst citizens is essential for Member States to take seriously in their design of their media literacy programmes. ENPA has consistently highlighted that a citizen must have the skills to analyze news as part of their media literacy capacity because newspapers play such an important role in society and in the defence of democracy. In response to the adopted Recommendation, ENPA members indicated that a more media- specific reference on the valuable role of local, regional and national newspapers in democratic society could have been made clearer in the recommendation. Copyright awareness has also been highlighted in the Recommendation as a necessary part of media literacy. The Commission will encourage research projects on media literacy in the framework of existing programmes. New studies regarding the dissemination of personal data online and the use of search engines will be undertaken by the Commission. ENPA produced its own vision of media literacy policy at the European level in May 2009 as one of the key results of the ENPA Media Literacy Working Group’s work. This document is available upon request from the ENPA Secretariat. By 2011, the Commission will report on media literacy levels in all Member States – it is currently finalising a study to develop criteria to assess media literacy. The Recommendation is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/media_literacy/index_en.htm ONLINE The ENPA Monthly Review is also available online , in English and French on our website www.enpa.be. MEDIA LITERACY