The 27th plenary meeting of the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI), chaired by Maja Zarić (Serbia), took place in Strasbourg from 18 to 20 June 2025. The meeting was opened by the Director for Democracy, Matjaž Gruden, who underscored the Committee’s vital role in upholding freedom of expression and media and strengthening democracy, within the “New Democratic Pact for Europe” launched by the Secretary General.

The Committee discussed progress on the drafting of a Recommendation on online safety and empowerment of content creators and users (MSI-eSEC) and a Guidance Note on the implications of generative artificial intelligence for freedom of expression (MSI-AI). Both documents are now open for public consultation (here and here).

Policy documents under preparation on countering disinformation and on promoting media and information literacy, as well as a study on immersive reality were also addressed.

CDMSI also reviewed progress on the Council of Europe’s “Journalists Matter” Campaign, including outcomes from this year’s Annual Thematic Conference on prosecuting crimes against journalists and the Third Meeting of National Focal Points held in Luxembourg. The Committee was further updated on the Annual Report of the Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists and had an exchange with representatives of the Platform’s partner organisations.

Participants were also updated on regulatory and policy developments through exchanges with representatives from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Audiovisual Observatory, the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA), the Venice Commission, and the European Commission.

In addition, the CDMSI members participated in a seminar on hate speech against journalists and other media actors, organised as part of the No Hate Speech Week. They also joined the democratic debates organised back-to-back with the Council of Europe’s hackathon “Democracy’s firewall: Outsmart Disinformation, Protect Free Speech”, which included a talk by Maja Zarić on disinformation and gender equality.

The meeting concluded with the decision to hold the next plenary session in Strasbourg on 3–5 December 2025.