Information as a Public Good: why media freedom is essential to democracy

The report proposes a fundamental reframing: information should be understood as a common good (bene comune), and the ecosystem through which it is produced, distributed, and accessed should be treated as genuine democratic infrastructure, comparable in importance to an independent judiciary, transparent administration, or intact electoral processes. This perspective draws on an expanded conception of public value, developed by scholars such as Mark H. Moore and Mariana Mazzucato, and introduces the notion of "democratic value"—the capacity of the information ecosystem to enable citizens, institutions, and civil society to exercise their rights, participate knowingly in public opinion formation, and hold power to account.

The purpose of the report is twofold. First, it offers a reading of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) not simply as another piece of regulation but as a paradigm shift—the EU's first organic framework recognizing that media freedom depends on the overall quality of the systemic conditions in which journalism operates, encompassing ownership concentration, platform dependence, journalists' working conditions, spyware threats, and the political influence over public service media. Second, it applies this systemic lens to the Italian case, with particular attention to the public broadcaster RAI, assessing not merely Italy's formal compliance with European standards but identifying the reforms necessary to strengthen the entire information system's capacity to sustain democratic quality.

Key Findings

The conclusions emphasize that the EMFA alone cannot resolve the fragilities of the Italian information ecosystem, since it leaves member states significant discretion over procedures, oversight bodies, and institutional safeguards. Everything therefore depends on national political and normative choices. The report contrasts two possible approaches: a minimal implementation, which would merely amend incompatible provisions, introduce formal obligations, and adjust the remits of existing authorities—reducing the risk of manifest violations while leaving structural vulnerabilities untouched—and an ambitious implementation, which would seize the opportunity to rethink the relationship between information, institutions, and democracy.

An ambitious path, in the report's view, would protect journalism from interference and surveillance, guarantee an independent and adequately funded public broadcaster, make ownership and conflicts of interest transparent, evaluate media concentrations for their effects on editorial autonomy, prevent public resources from becoming instruments of political conditioning, and strengthen the authorities charged with defending pluralism. The ultimate objective should be to increase the ecosystem's capacity to produce democratic value, protecting information as a common good and reinforcing it as essential democratic infrastructure.

• Legal and Policy Report
• Advocacy brief
• Reform Roadmap