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IssuesCESR did not find out how media operate before publishing guidance
By Francisco Pinto Balsemao
From Mr Francisco Pinto Balsemão and others. Sir, The European parliament will soon be voting on the second reading of the market abuse directive which, as your editorial "From MAD to worse" (September 19) pointed out, continues to present dangers for financial journalism, despite some very helpful amendments introduced at first reading in the parliament to Article 1. Many MEPs are perplexed - and no doubt bored - by the separate anxieties now being expressed to them by the media about the directive's Article 6(5). This Article, MEPs reply, lays down rules for investment research and strategy: in other words, for the activities of professional analysts at investment firms, and not also for the media. This was what the media believed until the summer. In July, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) issued for comment its draft Guidance on Article 6(5). CESR has interpreted Article 6(5) very broadly in order to give itself the mandate to issue guidance covering extensive areas of financial journalism. In practical terms, the CESR guidance is unworkable - and disproportionate - for financial journalism. It also cuts across existing media governance regimes including that of the UK's Press Complaints Commission, which would in future be downgraded to that of enforcing CESR's standards rather than, as now, setting, enforcing and policing tough standards itself. Before publishing its guidance, CESR did not contact the media, or bodies such as the PCC, to understand how financial journalism operates, or what media governance schemes are already in place. There can be few examples of a regulatory body producing draft regulatory guidance from a background of so little knowledge or contact with the sector to be regulated. In such circumstances, it was entirely foreseeable that the published guidance would be flawed. There needs to be a full and informed debate before Article 6 (5), which many still believe does not even relate to the media, can lead to displacing long-established media governance schemes that continue to deliver high standards of financial journalism.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Chief Executive, Grupo Impresa Eric Scherer, Director, Development of Economic and Financial News, AFP and Chairman, AFX News Marc van Cauteren, Chief Editor, Financieel-Economische Tijd Harvey Kass, Legal Director, Associated Newspapers Thomas Knipp, Editor in Chief, Handelsblatt Stephen Jukes, Global Head of News, Reuters Robert Pinker, Acting Chairman, Press Complaints Commission Dietmar Wolff, Director, European Newspaper Publishers Association David Mahon, Secretary-General, European Federation of Magazine Publishers Angela Mills, Executive Director, European Publishers' Council Sue Oake, Legal Adviser, The Newspaper Society Ian Locks, Chief Executive, Periodical Publishers Association Jacques Briquemont, European Broadcasting Union Hugo Drayton, Chairman, British Internet Publishers Alliance, Alison Clark, News International, Mostaza Milagros, Association of European Radios
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