EANA considers Google is trying to abuse its search-engine dominance in France

France, as the first country to apply national rules in order to implement the European copyright directive, faces a conflict between Google and its national digital media. The impression that emerges from the situation in France is that Google is trying to set a precedent by forcing French news publishers to offer their content for free in order to avoid fair payments to the publishers, therefore affecting their revenue and independence.

EANA believes in the fair economic treatment of journalistic work set out by the new Copyright Directive to make quality journalism prevail. Therefore, EANA as the Alliance of European News Agencies strongly supports the position of the French and European publishers protesting against Google´s plans to put publishers under pressure.

The European parliament has passed the Copyright Directive ensuring that the public has access to the best quality news, and that news publishers and agencies are paid when their content is used online.

EANA strongly believes that European media consumers have the right to access diverse, high quality journalism. European news agencies being at the forefront of global news gathering raise their voice to preserve a media industry that is able to fulfil this primary demand of democratic societies.

In EANA’s point of view, if Google acts according to the spirit of the European copyright directive, it will generate a win-win situation among all involved parties: the public, the media and Google itself.

For EANA:

Peter Kropsch, President of EANA & CEO of dpa

Armela Krasniqi, member of the Board, CEO of ATA

Clive Marshall, member of the Board, CEO of PA Media

Jiri Majstr, member of the Board, CEO of CTK

Alexandru Giboi, Secretary General of EANA

September 30th, 2019