EurOMo 2025

Acronym: EurOMo 2025
Title: A monitor of media ownership in Europe

Can you provide a brief overview of the EurOMo project and its primary objectives?
EurOMo is an ambitious project designed to enhance transparency in media ownership and control across all 27 EU Member States. Its primary goal is to update and expand a searchable, interactive database that covers not only traditional news outlets (print, radio, TV, and online) but also key social media channels that influence public opinion. By incorporating national laws, narrative country reports, interactive graphics, and risk assessments related to transparency in media ownership and control, EurOMo provides policymakers, journalists, researchers, and citizens with solid evidence on how media power is structured and where transparency might be lacking.
 

What role does VUB play in the EurOMo project, and what are some of its key contributions?
In this project as the responsible entity for delivering the Belgian data, the VUB has provided the following output: (i) an ownership and relations database, (ii) a risk assessment of the transparency of media outlets and their owners, (iii) a risk assessment of the public policy pertaining to media ownership transparency, and (iv) a detailed country report of the main findings and the risks to transparency building on the database and the two risk assessments.

Additionally, the VUB played a central role in spreading the word and ensuring that the important findings of EurOMo reach a wide audience. Throughout the project, VUB helped drive national engagement and enhanced the project’s visibility by leveraging its extensive networks and media expertise, boosting the project’s profile, ensuring that its findings contribute to broader debates on media transparency and pluralism. As a leading partner in the dissemination Work Package, VUB is organising the launch conference of the EurOMo 2025, which will bring together stakeholders from academia, media, advocacy groups, and policymaking circles. This major event will include the first public presentation of the 2025 data, featuring a refined concept and new features, alongside a roundtable focusing on ownership transparency and the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). The event will take place at the Press Club Brussels Europe on Thursday, 6 November 2025.
 

What will be the broader impact of the EurOMo project?
Aside for its impact on the academic realm, EurOMo empowers policymakers and regulators by providing them with a centralised, comprehensive and updated database, which includes the information needed to implement and refine policies. In this context, the monitor can also be used to trace the Member States’ compliance with the transparency requirements mandated by EMFA. By making complex ownership structures understandable and accessible through regular updates and by showcasing these results via interactive search results in the form of network visualisations, and offering the option to search for instances of control (CEOs, editors-in-chief, etc.) alongside an advanced search with filters and machine-readable results, EurOMo strengthens the public debate, as an informed public can better scrutinise media outlets’ and owners’ practices and demand accountability. Finally, EurOMo lays the groundwork for ongoing research and cross-border cooperation, providing a long-term research and collaboration resource that will continue to influence discussions on media ownership and its societal implications for years to come.