Media freedom in the age of digital constitutionalism
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Giovanni DE GREGORIO, Oreste POLLICINO and Peggy VALCKE (eds), The Oxford handbook of digital constitutionalism, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2025, Oxford handbooks, OnlineFirst
[Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF)]
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BROGI, Elda, NENADIC, Iva, Media freedom in the age of digital constitutionalism, in Giovanni DE GREGORIO, Oreste POLLICINO and Peggy VALCKE (eds), The Oxford handbook of digital constitutionalism, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2025, Oxford handbooks, OnlineFirst, [Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF)] - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/93919
Abstract
In today’s information environment, the concept and role of the media are increasingly shaped by the expansion of digital technologies and the structural impact of big technology companies on the information ecosystem. This chapter explores the complex relationship between the media and those companies. It focuses in particular on the risks to media freedom as a constitutional value when traditional constitutional safeguards, typically bound to national contexts and state institutions, shift toward private actors, more powerful than many individual states, in response to challenges that transcend borders and current capabilities of traditional regulatory frameworks. The chapter provides a more detailed examination of the European Union as a case study, representing an advanced regulatory attempt to ensure accountability and transparency of very large online platforms, especially on systemic risks to civic discourse and fundamental rights, all while underscoring the significance of media freedom and pluralism. The EU serves as an interesting and relevant case, inspiring public policies globally through an approach that injects (digital) constitutional principles into regulatory reforms dealing with new technologies. Furthermore, the EU’s regulatory approach illustrates how the rise of ‘private powers’ in the online sphere has been addressed through a regulatory system that significantly relies on the platforms themselves. Due diligence obligations and private enforcement mechanisms have emerged as key tools to tackle challenges posed by these very same private actors.
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Published online: 22 October 2025