Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-24-Speech-4-021"
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"en.20021024.2.4-021"2
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"Mr President, there are still too many obstacles in the way of smooth provision of financial services across national boundaries. The draft directive on market abuse that we are discussing today is one step in the right direction. Investor confidence is crucial for the successful development of our financial services markets. The integrity of European markets has to be safeguarded. Common and efficient standards to combat market abuse have to be established and thoroughly implemented.
Clearly, actions that intentionally manipulate financial markets, including those by financial journalists, have to be penalised. Like some other colleagues, however, I am worried about some proposals whose basic intention might be good and respectable but whose effects would be devastating. I believe that there must be tough rules in place to prevent conflicts of interest among financial journalists. But these need to be rules that are sensitive to the media context. Free speech is one of the cornerstones of democracy. In many countries, for example in my country and in Scandinavia, it would be simply unconstitutional to subject journalists to the sort of heavy-handed regulation that the CESR put forward in July.
Under the draft guidelines, a report by a journalist that merely records accurately a recommendation made by an investment analyst – for example, Merrill Lynch has upgraded its rating on Nokia – would require a public disclosure of personal interest on the part of the journalist. This would be impractical, unnecessary and disproportionate. The European Parliament did not address the issues raised by Article 6(5) at first reading because it was widely believed that the Article was targeted at financial analysts employed by investment firms where well-publicised abuses have occurred. The publication by the CESR of its draft guidelines in July revealed that it has another plan. The aim is to cover an extensive range of routine financial journalism where standards have remained high and existing governance mechanisms have proved adequate.
As explained above, the recent amendment to Article 6(10) by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs is insufficient, as the CESR would still be able to override or amend these mechanisms.
The feedback we have had from the European financial journalism community is clear. The proposals would have an adverse impact on media freedom and on journalistic independence. Financial journalism contributes to one of the key objectives of the directive, that is to ensure market transparency. This is especially important for small retail investors. They are the investors in the European Parliament should be trying to protect."@en1
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