Commissioner Vassiliou discussed copyright and media literacy with Cyprus publishers

There is a need to protect copyright related to the traditional news media, as well as to cultivate media literacy and free thinking among young people, European Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou told a high-level delegation of the Cyprus Newspaper Publishers Association during a meeting in Nicosia.

The issue of copyright violation and theft is a very serious matter for the Commission), Vassiliou said, adding that the challenge is even greater within the new digital environment.
“For us, the respect of the intellectual property rights of the journalists’ work and of their publishers is a fundamental issue, and it is worrying that these rights are violated, including in Cyprus,” she said.
Commissioner Vassiliou, whose portfolio includes education, culture, multilingualism and youth, said “young people must be able to choose and appreciate the proper value of news and have the opportunity to choose among serious media and serious journalism.”
The Publishers’ Association vice president Kypros Kourtelaris said that the cooperation with the Commissioner’s office will continue and “we look forward to the conclusions of the study conducted by the Commission and the University of Barcelona on the best practices and applications throughout the European Union that will allow young readers to become better judges of news stories and to choose the most reliable and serious sources.”