A draft bill intended to align Cyprus with European media freedom regulations has been criticised by journalists who say it threatens press freedom by enabling intrusive surveillance of media professionals and compromising source protection.
The legislation, drafted by the Interior Ministry to implement the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), contains provisions allowing authorities to monitor journalists and access their confidential sources, local media organisations said during consultations.
Under the proposed legislation, if the Police Chief, Intelligence Service Director, or any authorised investigator determines that lifting journalistic confidentiality could extract information about a serious case, they could initiate proceedings through the Attorney General to secure a court order (ex parte) permitting such actions against journalists.
The second paragraph of Article 5 specifically addresses access to journalists’ sources, stating that authorities could “compel respondents to disclose information related to the identification of journalistic sources or confidential communications” or “subject respondents or their corporate or private premises to surveillance, search and seizure, with the aim of obtaining information that relates to or can identify journalistic sources or confidential communications”.
The draft further escalates restrictions on press freedoms in its third paragraph, which permits “the development of intrusive surveillance software on any material, digital device, machine or tool used by the respondents” in exceptional cases where other measures are deemed inadequate for obtaining the required information.
All these procedures against journalists can be initiated based on the provisions of Article 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, the draft states, referring to conditions where confidentiality can be lifted in cases of reasonable suspicion of five serious criminal acts.
During a consultation meeting at the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) auditorium, media organisations expressed strong concerns about the proposed measures. The Interior Ministry has pledged to revise the text based on these concerns and present a new draft within a month.
George Mattheopoulos, senior officer at the Interior Ministry handling the matter, told philenews that the provisions in Article 5 regarding the lifting of journalistic confidentiality were “an exact copy” from the European Media Freedom Act.
The European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), or Regulation (EU) 2024/1083, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on April 17, 2024, and came into force on May 7, 2024. Its full implementation is scheduled for August 8, 2025.
In December 2023, philenews revealed that Cyprus was one of seven EU member states supporting France’s controversial provision to monitor journalists through spyware on grounds of national security threats without adequate safeguards.
Representatives from the Cyprus Union of Journalists, the Media Ethics Committee, the Cyprus Publishers Association, and other media bodies participated in the consultation, expressing serious concerns about what they described as abusive provisions against press freedom.
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