The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) is refreshing its core management team. Elda Brogi, who has been at the CMPF since its foundation in 2012, has stepped into the role of Deputy Director. Meanwhile, the position of Scientific Coordinator has been assumed by Iva Nenadic, who joined the Centre nearly a decade ago in 2016.
This leadership change reflects the CMPF’s ongoing growth, the expansion of its projects, and the increasing complexity of its objectives and responsibilities.
Both Elda and Iva have closely contributed to this evolution and to the main research and projects undertaken by the Centre, particularly the Media Pluralism Monitor. This year, alongside Director Pier Luigi Parcu, they co-edited Media Pluralism in the Digital Era: Legal, Economic, Social, and Political Lessons Learnt from Europe. The book compiles key findings and presents the results of the Monitor’s work over the years.
“I am immensely proud of the journey we have undertaken over more than a decade -states Elda- a journey that has fostered academic reflection on media pluralism and media freedom, has created a vibrant community of academics and stakeholders, and contributed meaningfully to policymaking on media pluralism in Europe. I am grateful I had the opportunity to test and develop the Media Pluralism Monitor, a project in which I tried to factor in all my previous experience as a media lawyer (…)”
Elda is an Italian-qualified lawyer with extensive experience in advising MPs at the European and Italian Parliaments on media policies and legislation, as well as contributing to expert committees at the Council of Europe. Elda teaches Communication Law at the University of Florence and, through the years, she has closely studied the profound changes affecting the media landscape and worked to adapt the MPM to make it a practical tool for informing policy and political debates.
“When we started, we didn’t include a question about how many journalists were killed. Then came the Caruana Galizia case. We thought such a question wasn’t necessary in Europe, but reality hit us hard. Today, journalism faces not only traditional threats like political pressure and direct threats to life but also new challenges: a crisis in the media market, power imbalances with platforms, and the impact of artificial intelligence” adds Iva.
Iva Nenadic is a former journalist who teaches courses in media digital policy, and computational propaganda at the University of Zagreb. She also serves as a member of the Committee of Experts on the impacts of generative artificial intelligence for freedom of expression (MSI-AI) at the Council of Europe. When asked how she envisions contributing to the Centre in her new role, she insists on the need to evaluate the risk that generative AI poses in further fragmenting reality and exacerbating an already polarised information sphere. Moreover, she points to the disruption caused by platforms, which, despite holding far greater power than any media organisation, remain largely exempt from accountability. However, she also observes that media organisations are not merely passive victims of these dynamics; they can sometimes contribute to the problem. Motivated by short-term profits rather than long-term planning, they often fall short of delivering the quality content that audiences need.
“In such a world, interdisciplinary research and a holistic approach, as nurtured by the Centre, are crucial to understanding these dynamics that directly impact the health and sustainability of democracy. As we have done so far, we remain committed to providing timely research and valuable insights for academia, policy, and society.” Iva remarked.