Project of the department presented in Amsterdam

Tales Tomaz discusses implications of EU Court decision

The Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam hosted a workshop on 28-29 February 2024 with the guest participation of Dr. Tales Tomaz. He presented the project Euromedia Ownership Monitor (EurOMo, https://media-ownership.eu), which discloses ownership relations of news media in all EU countries.

The goal of the workshop was to discuss transparency after the judgement of the EU Court of Justice that limited public access to beneficial ownership registers for privacy reasons. The decision of the court affects EurOMo, as it undermines the availability of ownership data for monitoring. In addition, the EU recommended not disclosing the names of beneficial owners in the database available on the website, reducing the informative potential of the project.

Participants of the workshop concluded that privacy and transparency are values whose balance should be achieved, but the legitimate interest of journalists and civil society organisations in investigating wrongdoings must be upheld and enshrined in regulation on the EU level.

The event was co-organised with the civil society organisations Transparency International and Civil Liberties Union for Europe. These organisations are advocating for solutions to improve conditions for transparency of beneficial owners.